The corrupt MUHC boss and his castle
Photo d’archives, Ben Pelosse
One of the first reports from our Bureau of Inquiry concerned an executive of the McGill University Health Center (MUHC) who had paid for a veritable castle.
Yanai Elbaz had notably done business with hospital suppliers for his plans and diverted materials to his luxurious residence in Saint-Laurent.
Less than a month following our reports, he was arrested by UPAC along with the hospital’s former CEO, Arthur Porter, for one of the biggest corruption cases in Canadian history. They had accepted bribes totaling $22 million to favor SNC-Lavalin in the awarding of the MUHC PPP construction contract.
For years, our Bureau of Investigation has followed in his footsteps and those with whom he worked. This is how we found, on the island of Saint-Martin, in the Caribbean, a businessman with whom he had invested part of his fortune in real estate.
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COVID investigation
Photo d’archives, Martin Chevalier
The Bureau of Investigation team revealed the first case of COVID-19 in Quebec, at the very beginning of the pandemic, in 2020.
Then one of our journalists worked in the red zone of an intermediate resource to show the drama that patients and staff were going through.
- Listen to the interview with Jean-Louis Fortin on the Richard Martineau show via QUB radio :
Finally, we discovered that a former MP and close friend of Justin Trudeau had landed a huge contract for ventilators in hospitals. Not to mention the deaths that were counted by fax. A practice from another era that François Legault quickly promised to abolish.
Rise and Fall of the King of Pharmacies
At 36, Jonathan-Yan Perreault was the largest pharmacy owner in Quebec. Virtually unknown to the general public, he notably used nominee agreements to hold his forty pharmacies.
After the Bureau of Investigation’s revelations, his empire crumbled. He was expelled until the age of 72 for having notably received benefits from pharmaceutical companies, consumed drugs, sold expired drugs and a multitude of other breaches of his code of ethics.
Bonuses and spa for specialist doctors
Jacket bonus, bonuses for arriving on time in the operating room, meeting bonus, oxygen bonus… Our Investigation Office has lifted the veil on several dubious bonuses granted to medical specialists. Most of them have since been abolished in the wake of our reporting.
In 2018, we also lifted the veil on training offered to doctors at Spa Eastman in Estrie, all expenses paid. The bonus of $800 per half-day of training has also been shelved since then.
