PKP admits to following Julie Snyder

Quebecor President Pierre-Carl Péladeau admitted in court that he instructed Garda to follow flight attendant Julie Snyder in the summer of 2016. He publicly denied the information at the time.

Mr. Péladeau made the unexpected admission as part of a lawsuit filed by Videotron against Productions J, M’s television production company.^I Snyder. The matter was settled amicably on Friday. The terms of the agreement are confidential.

Videotron is Quebecor’s largest subsidiary, of which Mr. Belado is the controlling shareholder.

At issue was a $45,000 invoice that Videotron had been demanding since 2016 from M.^I Snyder over roaming charges on a phone she provided to the couple’s son, Belado Snyder.

M^I Snyder, who was then in divorce proceedings with Mr. Pelado, considered this Videotron lawsuit a form of judicial contempt and sought punitive damages in the amount of $300,000 from Mr. Pelado and his companies.

M^I Snyder stressed during his testimony that even if Mr. Péladeau had been the leader of the Parti Quebecois and the official opposition at the time these phone fees were imposed, he could have rescinded them.

The links between Videotron, Pierre Karl and Quebecor continued during his political rule. And by his own admission, from what I understand, it is that confidence [sans droit de regard] As Mr. Belado appointed his companies while leading the Labor Party, “it was a joke” and “a license for children,” Mr. Bélado testified.^I Snyder.

“We even took a private Quebecor plane when he was an MP. She added that what was worse was that there was Quebecor’s vice president for legal affairs on board during a trip to the Magdalen Islands. Mr. Belado stated in his evidence that he did not remember this event, but that it likely occurred.

An invoice with a “Pharaonic” amount.

The phone bill is a “pharaonic sum,” according to Mr. Péladeau, largely due to roaming charges incurred while Mr. Péladeau was on vacation with his son in Europe in 2016.

The line was initially opened at Telus by M^I Snyder was transferred to Videotron by one of its employees. Mr. Belado allegedly assured her that he and his family were benefiting from a “VIP rate” that allowed them to access all of the company’s services for free, and that he would bear any potential costs.

However, a few months later, Videotron demanded an unpaid sum of $45,000 from Productions J.

Mr. Belado says he was informed of the situation “as a courtesy” by Videotron management before filing the lawsuit to recover the amount, but says he can’t do anything.

M^I Snyder, whose company was facing bankruptcy due to the abrupt termination of its contracts within Quebecor’s media outlets, maintains that she did not see the bill passing. “I reached an agreement with 200 creditors, and I finished paying them all in the spring of 2021. We reached an agreement with all of them, except for one.” [Vidéotron]Those who are after us today,” she lamented during her very moving testimony.

A series of objections from Mr. Belado

M^I Snyder asserts that she was also, at the time of sending the invoices, concerned about shading which she discovered was the target, which forced her to obtain a Supreme Court injunction to find out the identity of the heretofore known sponsor. Under the generic alias “John Doe”.

Mr. Belado denied this at the time in a statement sent to Journalism To be the sponsor of the yarn: “Mr. Belado is very surprised by this supposed yarn. “He is learning it,” the businessman said through his spokesman Andre Bouthillier.

Lawyer M^I Snyder, M.^H Hugo St. Laurent, who sought to attack Mr. Péladeau’s credibility, then asked why he had made such a “false” statement in public, particularly in front of journalists. JournalismWhen the court forced him, in 2016, to confess in private to M^I Snyder said he was the one who followed her.

Mr. Belado said he had known of no such thing and that the client’s identity, which had never been publicly disclosed, was subject to a publication ban.

Judge Karen Rogers told him: “There is no confidentiality order, nothing.” You must respond. »

The businessman added: “I didn’t think it was a good idea for people to know that I was the school principal.” He justified this surveillance by saying that he was concerned about the past of the man called M^I Snyder was dating at the time.

“They took justice into their own hands”

The lawsuit, which was initially filed by Videotron in 2017, also included Musique Sélect.

In 2020, this Quebecor subsidiary owed $93,000 to Productions J for copyrights and royalties, according to M.^I Snyder and his attorney. They claimed that Musique Sélect took this amount and gave it to Videotron to settle Productions J’s debts. “They took justice into their own hands,” M’s lawyer summed up.^I Snyder in the courtroom.

At the end of the testimony, Judge Rogers urged the parties to try to settle out of court. Earlier in the day, Videotron was ordered to disclose the total amount of its legal fees paid as part of its lawsuit against Productions J. The information ultimately will not need to be released because of the agreement reached Friday.