2023-10-21 07:16:29
The boss of Quebecor, Pierre Karl Péladeau, admitted in court to having instructed the Garda firm to follow host Julie Snyder in the summer of 2016. He publicly denied this information at the time.
Published at 3:16 a.m. Updated at 5:00 a.m.
Mr. Péladeau made this unexpected admission as part of a lawsuit filed by Videotron against Productions J, Ms. Snyder’s television production company. The matter was settled amicably on Friday. The terms of the agreement are secret.
Videotron is the largest subsidiary of Quebecor, of which Mr. Péladeau is the controlling shareholder.
The subject of the dispute was an invoice of $45,000 that Videotron had claimed since 2016 from Ms. Snyder for roaming charges on a phone that she had provided to the son of the Péladeau-Snyder couple.
Ms. Snyder, then in divorce proceedings with Mr. Péladeau, considered this Videotron lawsuit to be a form of judicial abuse and demanded $300,000 in punitive damages from Mr. Péladeau and his companies.
PHOTO ROBERT SKINNER, THE PRESS
The president of Productions J, Julie Snyder, Thursday at the Montreal courthouse
Ms. Snyder maintained during her testimony that even if Mr. Péladeau was leader of the Parti Québécois and the official opposition at the time these telephone costs were incurred, he could very well have had them canceled.
“The links between Videotron, Pierre Karl and Quebecor continued during his political period. By his own admission, from what I understood, is that the trust [sans droit de regard] » in which Mr. Péladeau had placed his companies while he led the PQ, “it was a joke” and a “kid’s business,” testified Ms. Snyder.
“We even took Quebecor’s private jet while he was an MP. Worse than that, there was Quebecor’s vice-president of legal affairs on board” during a trip to the Magdalen Islands, she added. Mr. Péladeau stated in his testimony that he did not remember this event, but that it was likely that it occurred.
An invoice of a “pharaonic” amount
The telephone bill of a “huge, pharaonic amount,” according to Mr. Péladeau, is largely due to roaming charges incurred while Mr. Péladeau was on vacation with his son in Europe in 2016.
The line, initially opened at Telus by Ms. Snyder, was transferred to Videotron by one of its employees. Mr. Péladeau allegedly assured her that he and his family benefited from a “VIP rate” giving them access to all of the company’s services free of charge, and that he would assume any possible costs.
However, a few months later, Videotron demanded the unpaid sum of $45,000 from Productions J.
Mr. Péladeau says he was informed of the situation “as a courtesy” by Videotron management before filing the lawsuit to recover the amount, but says he could do nothing.
First of all, [j’étais] in a situation of undeniable conflict of interest. Then, I don’t see why I would intervene for this or that delinquent account which has not been paid.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, president of Quebecor, justifying himself before judge Karen Rogers
Ms. Snyder, whose company was then facing bankruptcy due, she says, to the abrupt end of its contracts within Quebecor media, maintains that she did not see the bill pass. “I reached an agreement with 200 creditors, all of whom I finished repaying in the spring of 2021. We reached an agreement with each of them, except one [Vidéotron]those who are pursuing us today,” she lamented, during a very emotional testimony.
Series of objections from Mr. Péladeau
Ms. Snyder maintains that she was also, at the time the invoices were sent, concerned about a tailing which she discovered was the target, an episode which forced her to obtain an injunction in Superior Court to know the The identity of the sponsor, known until now under the generic pseudonym “John Doe”.
Mr. Péladeau, at the time, denied in a statement sent to The Press to be the sponsor of the spinning: “Mr. Péladeau is very surprised by this supposed spinning. He learns it,” the businessman then said, through his spokesperson André Bouthillier.
Ms. Snyder’s lawyer, Me Hugo St-Laurent, seeking to attack Mr. Péladeau’s credibility, then asked him why he had made such a “false” statement publicly, notably to The Presswhen he was forced by the Court, in 2016, to privately admit to Ms. Snyder “that it was he who had her followed”.
Mr. Péladeau argued that he had not recognized such a thing and that the identity of the agent, never revealed publicly, was subject to a publication ban.
“There is no confidentiality order, nothing,” Judge Karen Rogers told him. You must respond. »
The person who ordered Garda to follow Ms. Snyder was me.
Pierre Karl Péladeau, president of Quebecor
“I didn’t think it was a good idea for people to know that I was the principal,” added the businessman. He justified the surveillance by saying he was concerned about the past of a man Ms. Snyder was dating at the time.
“They took justice into their own hands”
The lawsuit, initially filed by Videotron in 2017, also involved Musique Sélect.
In 2020, this Quebecor subsidiary owed Productions J $93,000 for copyright and royalties, argue Ms. Snyder and her lawyers. They alleged that Musique Sélect had taken this sum and given it to Videotron to settle Productions J’s debt. “They took justice into their own hands,” summarized Ms. Snyder’s lawyer in the corridors of the Palais de justice.
At the end of the testimony, Judge Rogers urged both parties to try to settle out of court. Earlier in the day, she had ordered Videotron to disclose the total amount of its legal fees paid as part of the lawsuit against Productions J. The information will ultimately not have to be revealed due to the agreement occurred Friday.
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