QUEBEC - The Quebec government hopes it has found its Eliot Ness.
Robert Lafreniere, who has a lengthy background in police work, has been named as the first commissioner of the province's anti-corruption squad, dubbed the first of its kind in Canada.
The unit, which has a budget of $31.5 million, is charged with rooting out influence-peddling and collusion in the scandal-weary province.
It was formed in the wake of demands for a public inquiry into corruption in the construction industry.
It's based on New York City's Department of Investigation, one of the oldest law-enforcement organizations in the United States.
Lafreniere was the deputy minister of public security and headed the criminal investigations division of the Quebec provincial police.
He says one of his first tasks will be to figure out how to resolve a boycott of the squad by Quebec's prosecutors.
The prosecutors said they wouldn't work with the unit as a response to a legislated contract settlement imposed on them recently by the provincial government.
Lafreniere says he might use senior prosecutors to staff the unit, which needs about 20 of the lawyers.
