There is a report  that the top administrator at Montreal City Hall tried to get the city's top cop fired - for snooping around a contract tendered last year.

La Presse says Police Chief Marc Parent caught wind of a complaint of favouritism in the awarding of a 42-million dollar contract for an upgrade of Montreal's public security communications network. One of the losing bidders felt the process wasn't fair.

The police chief spoke the city's chief controller about it and that conversation got back to director general Guy Hebert. As the boss of all city employees, he felt he should have been in the loop.

La Presse says Hebert went to the Public Security Ministry demanding that Chief Parent be fired - but was told he didn't have the authority to make that request. Only city council can sack the chief, with a majority vote.