Maison Radio-Canada in Montreal. Photo courtesy Shaun Michaud.

Radio-Canada fights RCMP attempt to obtain interview materials

By Grant Buckler The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are seeking to obtain never-broadcast excerpts of interviews conducted by Alain Gravel, formerly of the Radio-Canada current affairs program Enquête, concerning alleged corruption at the Canada Revenue Agency. According to a La Presse report, Gravel conducted interviews with Francesco Bertucci, owner of the Montreal employment agency Thomson…

By Grant Buckler

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police are seeking to obtain never-broadcast excerpts of interviews conducted by Alain Gravel, formerly of the Radio-Canada current affairs program Enquête, concerning alleged corruption at the Canada Revenue Agency.

According to a La Presse report, Gravel conducted interviews with Francesco Bertucci, owner of the Montreal employment agency Thomson Tremblay, and Adriano Furgiuele, a former tax auditor dismissed in 2009. Criminal charges were later laid against both men. Furgiuele is alleged to have taken a bribe to help Bertucci avoid taxes.

Excerpts of 20 seconds each from both interviews were broadcast on Radio-Canada, but the conversations were significantly longer. The RCMP is seeking the full interviews in hopes of obtaining evidence helpful to its case.

According to a report posted by the Fédération professionnelle des journalistes du Québec, the Quebec Court has ordered Radio-Canada to provide the material to the RCMP, and Radio-Canada is now challenging that decision before the Superior Court.

Grant Buckler is a retired freelance journalist and a volunteer with Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and lives in Kingston, Ont. 

Grant Buckler is a retired freelance journalist and a volunteer with Canadian Journalists for Free Expression and lives in Kingston, Ont.