[6] Boucher's attorney, Jacques Larochelle, was a well respected Quebec City defense lawyer noted for suave, courtly manner; speaking his French with a strong upper class accent; and his ability to tear apart the credibility of the Crown's witnesses on the stand via a series of sharp, probing questions.
[9] Charbonneau stated she was not impressed with Larochelle, saying that he struck her as the type of arrogant, upper class male attorney who had no respect for the abilities of female lawyers and that she found his upper-class accent and mannerisms patronizing and offensive.
Boucher's first trial had ended with Larochelle portraying the Crown's main witness, the hitman Stéphane Gagné as unreliable and prone to perjury.
[5] The police team had failed to fully examine the photographs, videotapes, wiretaps and phone records before the first trial and instead relied upon civilian analysts to log the evidence.
[5] Other police tapes confirmed the Hells Angels hierarchy precisely in the manner that Gagné had described, which Charbonneau as evidence at the trial he was telling the truth.
[11] Charbonneau was also helped by the fact that Serge Boutin, a leading Hells Angel had cut a deal with the Crown after he killed a police informer Claude Des Serres in February 2000.
[11] Boutin had been the boyfriend of the Hells Angel Paul "Fonfon" Fontaine who taken part in the second murder of the prison guard Pierre Rondeau alongside Gagné.
[2] Charbonneau regarded Larochelle as an arrogant grand seigneur, the type of lawyer who used to order her to get coffee when she was a legal secretary in the 1970s, and thought he had underestimated her because she was a woman.
[14] In her final address to the jury, Charbonneau stated: "If I had not vigorously objected-an objection which my colleague so delicately described as a fit of hysterics-if I had not insisted that you see the video for yourselves, wouldn't you have been convinced, as Monsieur Larochelle had wanted, that Gagné lied when he said he was tired?
[15] On the recommendation of François Rolland, then Chief Justice of the Court, Premier Jean Charest named Charbonneau to chair an inquiry into corruption in the Quebec construction industry on 9 November 2011.
[20] On 15 June 2012, the former Montreal police chief Jacques Duchesneau testified at the commission that the Transport Minister Sam Hamel was indifferent to allegations of corruption in the construction industry and that 70% of all political contributions in Quebec were illegal.
[21] The next witness Charbonneau called was the Italian Mafia expert Valentina Tenti who testified that the Rizzuto family of Montreal was part of a wider international structure involving criminal elements in Italy, the United States and elsewhere.
[21] The next expert witness called to the commission was Detective Mike Amato of the York Regional Police who testified that the Mafia had taken control of a number of restaurants, transportation firms, and construction companies in both Ontario and Quebec.
[21] Charbonneau summoned as her next witness the former agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Joseph D. Pistone, better known by his alias Donnie Brasco, who testified that the Mafia needed corrupt public officials to do its work.
[26] Surprenant testified that construction companies routinely overbilled the city between 20%-50% in excess of the actual work done, and stated that there was nothing wrong with this as corruption in Montreal was an "open secret" that everyone knew about.
[29] Vézina admitted that he had taken bribes such in the form of bottles of wine, dinners at expensive restaurants, tickets to see the Montreal Canadiens hockey team play at the Molson center and the services of prostitutes hired by the construction companies.
[29] Charbonneau called as a witness Martin Carrier, the owner of Les Céramiques Lindo ceramic firm based in Quebec City.
[31] In support of his claims, Carrier played an audio tape of a phone call he received in 2004 from a man speaking French with an Italian accent who told him to cease work in Montreal because otherwise "...you won't be walking away from here.
[31] Carrier also testified that he received further death threats from a Rizzuto family member, Francesco Del Balso, after he made a bid on a contract in Montreal.
[32] Leclerc testified that he tried to avoid paying kickbacks to the corrupt city officials and the Rizzuto family, but was finally forced to because it was the only way to win contracts in Montreal.
[32] Michel Cadotte, the owner of the Ipex pipe-manufacturing company testified that the city cancelled its contract to buy his Terra-Brute pipes after he refused to pay a $150, 000 bribe.
[32] Charbonneau started January 2013 by calling as a witness, Michel Lalonde, the owner of Génius Counseil, who testified that he overbilled the city by 25%-30% in his construction work and donated the money to the politicians.
[32] Lalonde testified that for the next two years it was impossible for Génius Counseil to win contracts until in 2003 he received a phone call from Trépanier who asked him to give $100, 000 in cash to Tremblay.
[36] Borsellino testified that he had paid $50, 000 to give a free vacation in Italy to Robert Marcil, the chief of Montreal's Public Works department, as the price of winning a contract.
[39] When Charbonneau asked Cadotte why SNC-Lavalin had given so much money in illegal donations, he answered her by saying: "We want to make sure we can take in our activities and so we agree to the demands that are made".
[40] Trépanier, who was very nervous when giving his testimony as Charbonneau had reminded him that he could indicted for perjury if he was caught out in a lie, denied all of the allegations against him, saying the Monsieur trois pour cent nickname was a "smear" made up by his enemies.
[41] Charbonneau's next witness was Sergeant Alain Belleau of the Sûreté du Québec who testified that the Hells Angels were actively involved in the Quebec construction industry.
[41] The next witness to be called by Charbonneau was Ken Pereira, a high-ranking official in the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec (FTQ) trade union.
[47] Langton wrote that the root problem in the Quebec construction industry was not the Rizzuto family nor the Hells Angels, but rather the climate of corruption which allowed these criminal syndicates to flourish, which the Charbonneau commission failed to address.
[47] Charbonneau was portrayed by Claudia Ferri in the television drama series Bad Blood, which debuted in 2017, surrounding the Rizzuto crime family.