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 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.