'No purge' of City Hall rivals, Denis Coderre claims after high-profile firings

Montreal Mayor Denis Coderreis denying he's purging his political opponents from key municipal positions ahead of the November elections.

In a municipal council meeting Tuesday, Coderreconfirmed the dismissals of two city councillors who recently decided not to join his party, quipe Denis Coderre.

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MarvinRotrand,thecouncillorfor the Snowdon district, was removedhis post as deputy chair of the Montreal transit authority, the Socitdestransports deMontral(STM), after 16 years on the board.

Rotrandsaid he was "fired" atCoderre'srequestafter taking over the leadership ofCoalition Montreal, a small municipal party that only has one council seat.

Last week,Southwest borough mayorBenoitDorais, who had been sitting as independent in council, announced that he was joiningProjetMontral, the largest opposition party at City Hall.

A few days later,Doraiswasrelievedof his position as president of the city's agglomeration council.

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The mayor is now coming under criticism for the dismissals. Justine McIntyre of Vrai Changement pour Montral accused Coderre on Tuesday of firing people simplyto benefit his own party.

"There isno purge,"Coderrereplied."The fact that a lot of people came tothis side [quipeDenisCoderre] is because they saw that we could work together."

ProjetMontralis not buying his explanation. A spokesperson for the party saidCoderrewas reneging on his promise to reduce political bickering at City Hall.

"The mayor of Montreal is blinded by partisanship and holds a grudge against his political opponents," Marc-AndrViausaid in a statement.

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"Instead of keeping his promise, he did the exact opposite with retaliation and bullying against his opponents.... What we see now is DenisCoderreusing a 'you are with us or against us'mantra."

In an interview with CBC Montreal's Daybreak,Rotrandsaid people in theCoderreadministration told him in January that they were uncomfortable with his having assumed the leadership of Coalition Montreal. Buthe hadn't heard fromCoderresince then.

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"For whatever the perceived slight he might have and again it would be so minor it is a punishment that exceeds any crime that I have committed," RotrandsaidofCoderre, who hasn't publicly announced the firing yet.

Coderre's office did not return a request for comment.

Sending a message?

Rotrand said he had no "inkling" that Coderrewas unhappy with his work at the STM.

"In December, Denis Coderre came to see me to tell me what a great job I was doing in terms of defending public transit at council and defending the admin's line on transit," Rotrand said.

"So you can imagine what a surprise this is."

He added that he believes his dismissal is a message to councillors in Coderre's own party: fall into line ahead of the Nov. 5 municipal election.

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"I think that in some ways the municipal election ... will be a referendum on whether you like the style of Denis Coderre or not," said Rotrand.

Loosing his position with theSTM also comes with a dramatic pay cut.Rotrand estimates he wil lose 40 per cent of his salary.

"I'm now out in the boonies and making the minimum, so if any of your listeners have any ideas fora clever guy who needs a little bit of extra income," he said with a laugh.