"Couillard's ties known to chief of airport security, source says"

Saturday, June 14, 2008

2004 MEETING
Couillard's ties known to chief of airport security, source says
BY RHÉAL SÉGUIN 
Canada - The Toronto Globe and Mail


QUEBEC -- Despite her ties with the criminal world and being "on file" with
the RCMP, Julie Couillard received high-level access to one of the country's
top security agencies.

In 2004, the head of the Canadian Air Transport Security Agency , Jacques
Duchesneau, met with Ms. Couillard and two of her associates in the firm
D.R.P. Investigation and Security Services. 

Mr. Duchesneau, who had previously been chief of the Montreal police force,
was well acquainted with Ms. Couillard's ties with the Hells Angels biker
gang, a source said. Mr. Duchesneau helped set up an anti-biker police task
force called Wolverine that involved the Montreal force, the RCMP and the
Sûreté du Québec, and was familiar with many of the key figures in the
investigation.

He left the force in 1998, and was appointed by the Liberal government in
October, 2002, as the first president of CATSA, which was established to
beef up security at Canada's airports after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist
attacks in the United States.

The vice-president of operations at CATSA at the time of Ms. Couillard's
meeting with Mr. Duchesneau was former RCMP senior officer Jacques Grilli.
Another senior official at the agency, Kevin McGarr, was a 26-year veteran
on the Montreal force who retired from the police in 1996 after being
involved with the Wolverine unit.

Together, the three senior officials managed airport security services such
as pre-boarding screening of travellers and their belongings, monitoring
employee activities, and overseeing the installation of sophisticated
surveillance equipment. Ms. Couillard was bidding on two airport security
contracts. 

Mr. McGarr was appointed interim president of CATSA after Mr. Duchesneau
retired on April 29, 2008.

A spokesman for CATSA, Mathieu Larocque, confirmed that the meeting between
Mr. Duchesneau and D.R.P. took place on Oct. 19, 2004. Ms. Couillard was
present, along with her boyfriend Robert Pépin, a convicted criminal who ran
the firm (he committed suicide last year, in debt to the Hells Angels), and
Denis Pépin, Robert's father, a retired Montreal police officer who had
worked closely with Mr. Duchesneau on the force. 

Mr. Duchesneau was not available for comment yesterday. 

Mr. Larocque noted that representatives of the agency's financial and
corporate services branch were also at the meeting to evaluate the firm's
bid.

"It was a courtesy meeting. Mr. Duchesneau was there as well as the
representatives from D.R.P., including Ms. Couillard," Mr. Larocque said.
"There was nothing abnormal about the meeting. We often meet suppliers who
present us with their products."

What was unusual, however, was that Ms. Couillard, who according to RCMP
testimony before a Commons committee this week, was known to the police
force. She was also known to Mr. Duchesneau and to other top officials at
CATSA because of her connections to people investigated by the Wolverine
task force, yet was allowed access to a high-level security location and
given information about airport security to prepare her bid on two
contracts. "None of the information they received was classified as
sensitive and didn't pose a risk to airport security," Mr. Larocque
insisted. 

In an interview with the Quebec gossip magazine 7-jours, Ms. Couillard said
the meeting was set up because of Robert Pépin's "contacts at CATSA," his
association with Mr. Duchesneau. Ms. Couillard added that she had to go
through security screening before being allowed into the CATSA building,
including "filling in forms and divulging information."

"It seems we passed all the tests because we were able to attend our meeting
and enter the CATSA building. ... They looked into my past, but saw
nothing," Ms. Couillard said. 

D.R.P. was unsuccessful in its efforts to obtain the two federal contracts
awarded in December of 2004 and February of 2005. 

Ms. Couillard had ties with a mafia figure in her early 20s before dating
biker-gang figures, including loan shark Gilles Giguère, who was murdered in
1996. She married Stéphane Sirois, who was closely tied to the Hells Angels
before turning police informant. To this day, biker members believe Ms.
Couillard was a police informant.

More recently, Ms. Couillard began moving in political circles, promoting
the business interests of the Quebec real estate firm Kevlar Group. Her
relationship with Public Works Minister Michael Fortier's political adviser
Bernard Côté sparked another outcry in Ottawa this week, and Mr. Côté
resigned amid allegations of influence peddling and conflict of interest
over the Kevlar Group's proposal for a federal office building project in
Quebec City.

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