Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville (English)

Saint-Bruno-de-Montarville

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One of 99%Media’s major dossiers was the case of St-Bruno-de-Montarville. For an entire year, between 2012 and 2013, 99%Media followed a group of citizens opposing mayor Claude Benjamin, who was allegedly colluding with Paul J. Massicotte, a liberal senator and lobbying real estate developer who planned to tear down an endangered, bicentennial forest in order to build multi-million housing units.

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99%Media started filming the St-Bruno activists on January 8 2012. “Les voeux du Maire” is an event held by the municipality each year to encourage the public to come and meet the mayor and celebrate the new year.  The St-Bruno activists planned to be at the event and invited 99%Media to document their protest.  Though the event was open to the public, 99%Media members were subjected to both physical and verbal intimidation by the mayor’s entourage. One of them even tried to grab one of our cameras. They also called the police to come and intervene and expel the activists.  The police, however, noted that this was a public event and that the activists, as citizens of St-Bruno, had the right to be there. All the police asked was that the activists take down their signs and posters, which they agreed to.

Video: Les voeux du maire

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99%Media followed up for more than a year on this dossier, went to almost every municipal council session and publicly made available what we filmed. Due to the availability of our videos online, the citizens of St-Bruno were able to point out when mayor Claude Benjamin was making erroneous or contradictory statements.

It became clear that M. Benjamin not only refused to listen to the citizens of St-Bruno-de-Montarville, but also allegedly abused his power to the point of having citizens who questioned him forcibly removed from public council sessions by police officers.

99%Media caught such alleged abuses and produced the following short documentary, on the 2nd of January 2013.

Video: Sécurité publique ou contrôle politique?

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The video became viral and reached over 100,000 views in three days. Mainstream media networks picked up on this video and the topic of St-Bruno-de-Montarville’s public council sessions was covered for several weeks, an eternity by mainstream media standards.

Une vidéo dénonçant cette présence a notamment été mise en ligne sur YouTube, la semaine dernière. Intitulée « Sécurité publique ou contrôle politique ? », la vidéo montre des séances du conseil où le ton monte entre les citoyens et le maire lors de la période des questions. Les citoyens parlant au micro sont mécontents des réponses du maire et refusent de céder la parole. À plusieurs reprises, le maire ordonne aux policiers présents d’escorter des participants à l’extérieur. La vidéo a été visionnée plus de 97 000 fois depuis mercredi dernier. « L’ambiance n’est pas du tout agréable lors des séances », explique Mme Alarie. Bahador Zabihiyan – Le Devoir 7-01-2013

[…] en l’occurence M. Benjamin — a tout à fait le droit d’être indisposé par des citoyens qui talonnent sa gestion de la ville, même si on peut penser qu’un élu municipal devrait avoir la peau un peu plus épaisse. Mais le Service de police de la Ville de Longueuil — dont fait partie Saint-Bruno — n’est pas obligé d’obéir au doigt et à l’oeil d’un maire comme ça, à des fins politiques. Car quand vous ordonnez à deux policiers de sortir quelqu’un qui n’a rien fait de mal, sinon de vous avoir contrarié en public, vous le faites à des fins politiques. Patrick Lagacé – LaPresse 3-01-2013

Mayor Claude Benjamin publicly accused 99%Media of being dishonest by creating a video that was “edited” and “commanded” for by the opposition political party just to make him look bad. In response to the mayor, 99%Media released the unedited live multi-camera full length videos of every single municipal council session we covered.

Ce document est truqué en ce sens qu’il s’agit d’un montage parfaitement effectué. La vidéo a été enregistrée au cours de différentes séances publiques, en été comme en hiver. On le voit, il y a des coupures dans la vidéo; toutes les scènes dans lesquelles les résidants expulsés vocifèrent, sacrent et présentent des doigts d’honneur en direction des membres du conseil ont été supprimées […] vidéo mal foutue, décousue, malhonnête, médiocre et regrettable Claude Benjamin (then the mayor of st-Bruno)- Les Versants 07-01-2013

99%Media responded to mayor Claude Benjamin with an open letter, and the unedited multi-camera full-length videos of every single municipal council session we covered.

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Also, G.A.P.P.A Squad, one of our partner media groups, came out with a video covering the story.

Video: Qu’est-ce qui se passe à Saint-Bruno? (G.A.P.P.A.)

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The media firestorm had a profound effect on the municipal elections of that year, and the citizens previously opposing the mayor were voted into office, with a majority of the municipal cabinet.

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Media Mentions

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