Denis Coderre can be loose with the truth. Do people care?
CBC
Over the course of the municipal election campaign, Ensemble Montréal leader and candidate for mayor Denis Coderre has had a complicated relationship with the truth.
On more than one occasion, Coderre has presented facts and figures that were later proven false.
The claims range from allegations that Montreal's credit rating was going down — it isn't — to Montreal having experienced "400 shootouts," when discussing gun violence — it has not.
The comments don't appear to be affecting Coderre's popularity. Recent polls show the former mayor is neck and neck with his main rival, incumbent Valérie Plante, who leads Projet Montréal.
Many of the statements were made when Coderre was speaking off-the-cuff. Most were said when responding to questions at news conferences.
CBC News and Radio-Canada fact-checked some of Coderre's statements. Here's what we found.
Speaking at a news conference announcing his plan to revitalize the downtown core, Coderre was asked whether or not he was fear-mongering on the campaign trail.
Coderre had previously suggested that Montreal was unsafe and compared it to Beirut after Lebanon's civil war.
"If I'm fear-mongering, what did I say that was fear-mongering?" he asked. "What are you going to say to those families right now, who are afraid because there are over 400 shootouts?"
There were not 400 shootouts in Montreal this year.
From January to the end of September, there were 97 incidents where a firearm was discharged, according to Montreal police.
The SPVM specified that those instances include times when a firearm was used without aiming at someone — shot into the air, for example.
If one also includes all of 2018, 2019 and 2020, the total comes to 236 incidents.
When asked by CBC this week about the discrepancy, Coderre asserted that he didn't say there were 400 shootouts. He claims he said there were 400 bullet casings found, despite video from the news conference showing otherwise.