Tony Accurso will soon be able to leave prison

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Ex-construction contractor Tony Accurso was sentenced to four years in prison in 2018. His lawyers then took his case all the way to the Supreme Court.

• Stéphane Bordeleau (View profile)Stéphane Bordeleau

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Ex-construction contractor Tony Accurso will soon be released from prison after serving a sixth of his sentence imprisonment of four years, that is to say approximately eight months.

Tony Accurso was sentenced to four years in prison on July 5, 2018, after being found guilty of having taken part in a major collusion and corruption scheme in the awarding of public works contracts in Laval, under the leadership of former mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

This was the second trial suffered by the entrepreneur. The first, in the fall of 2017, was aborted because Judge James Brunton considered that the jury had been potentially contaminated.

The entrepreneur immediately brought the case before the Court of Appeal which upheld, in May 2022, the guilty verdict pronounced against him in the court of first instance, almost four years earlier.

His lawyers then appealed the decision before the Supreme Court.

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Summated by turning himself in to the prison authorities after his setback in the Court of Appeal, Tony Accurso managed to escape prison by obtaining release while awaiting the decision of the judges of the Supreme Court. It was understood that he would have to turn himself in to prison authorities if his case was rejected by the country's highest court. Which happened.

On July 27, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada refused to hear Tony Accurso's case, forcing him to serve the sentence which had been imposed on him five years earlier.

Although it is no longer possible today for a inmate to apply for release after serving one-sixth of their sentence under an old procedure called expedited review, abolished under the Stephen Harper government, inmates convicted of crimes committed before 2011 are still eligible.

According to prison law lawyer Pierre Tabah, who spoke on Friday on the show Isabelle Richer, on ICI RDI, all inmates who are in their first federal sentence for a crime committed before 2011 and without violence are by definition eligible for an expedited review. That doesn't mean they'll get it.

It's the Parole Board of Canada (CLCC) which makes the decision after studying the file. Several criteria are taken into account, including the risk of recidivism and public safety, in particular.

It therefore seems that Tony Accurso has fulfilled all the conditions, since the PBC granted him day parole on Friday until he is eligible for full parole.

According to the decision rendered by the CLCC, he must respect at least four conditions, including the prohibition of coming into contact with certain people, of owning or operating a business and of being responsible for investments or investments for d persons other than himself, as well as the obligation to provide any financial information necessary for his supervision.

The former construction magnate made headlines last April after shots were fired at his home in Deux-Montagnes. Fortunately, no one was injured. In November 2022, four individuals were also arrested in possession of Molotov cocktails near his home.

The relatives of Tony Accurso who lives near his house have also been the subject of numerous threats in 2022 and 2023.

• Stéphane Bordeleau (Consult the profile)Stéphane BordeleauFollow