I'm being threatened by police union: mayor
Montreal Mayor Michael Applebaum says he's being threatened by the Montreal Police Brotherhood — because of the city's decision to end a pilot project that that allowed police officers to work 3 days a week.
Applebaum says the Brotherhood sent him an intimidating email suggesting he change his mind about abolishing the shortened work week.
The mayor says he spoke to Brotherhood spokesman Yves Francoeur, who gave him an ultimatum for 6 p.m. Friday night. If not, the mayor says, Francoeur told him he would attack him personally as mayor.
He says he even threatened to orchestrate a smear campaign against him.
The email reportedly suggests it's not bureaucrats who would be having trouble — but the mayor himself.
No threats made: union boss
Francoeur, meantime, was adamant that there were no threats made against the mayor, but rather, he wanted to make sure the 6 p.m. deadline would elicit an answer from Applebaum's office.
"I told him, I want an answer before 6 o'clock [Friday] afternoon," Francoeur told reporters at a hastily called news conference Friday afternoon. "Because when you don't tell them at the City of Montreal that you want an answer fast, then you wait for weeks and weeks."
Following the news conference, Applebaum continued to insist threats were made.
"He said to be clearly that I had until 6 o'clock to accept this three-day workweek; if not, he would start his campaign," Applebaum insisted.
He adds, too, that the three-day workweek the union is asking to have extended is unfeasible and expensive. He says he told Francoeur that his door is open to discussing a number of scenarios.
"It's not through insults or threats or personal attacks on me that I'm going to budge," the mayor concluded.
Photo: CTV