Ex-Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt will face trial by judge and jury

Some of the 34 defendants facing charges related to alleged corruption in the awarding of Laval municipal contracts and their lawyers file into a courtroom Friday, Sept. 4, 2015.

Former Laval mayor Gilles Vaillancourt and his 33 co-defendants will all stand trial in front of a judge and jury.

All the accused were present in court Friday, and although some of them would have preferred to be tried before a judge only, Justice Marie-Suzanne Lauzon decided to have everyone face a judge and jury.

The 34 defendants, among them entrepreneur Tony Accurso, face a series of charges related to an alleged system fraud and corruption in the awarding of municipal contracts.

Vaillancourt, as well as Laval’s former director-general Claude Asselin, and the former director of the municipal engineering, Claude Deguise, also face the more serious charges of gangsterism, which carry with them the possibility of 14 years in prison.

The next court date has been set for Sept. 16, but will be to address logistical issues. The trial is expected to last several months and will require a room large enough to accommodate the 34 defendants, their lawyers, the Crown, the media and the general public.

The proceedings aren’t expected to begin before 2017 and possibly 2018.

Originally 37 people were arrested following an UPAC operation in May 2013, but three of them have since died.

Vaillancourt resigned as mayor in Nov. 2012 after his 23-year tenure as mayor of Laval.