It was to take revenge on Hydro-Québec after a conflict with the state-owned company that ex-star pilot Normand Dubé sabotaged three 735-kilovolt lines on December 4, 2014, hammered the Crown.
• To read also: A death as an alibi at the trial of the ex-star pilot
• To read also: The mysteries of the pilot of the stars
The seven-year conflict between Hydro-Québec and Normand Dubé over the easement on his land in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, from 2002 to 2009, is the subject of the fourth episode of the podcast “Par pure vengeance” produced by QUB radio and The Bureau of Investigation. It brings to light again the contradictory versions and the gray areas of the long litigation during which Dubé lost his temper in the face of the nonchalance of the Société d’Etat.
“Would everyone go as far as Mr. Dubé?” asked investigative journalist Marie-Christine Noël.
Crown prosecutor Steve Baribeau believes that if Dubé had made arrangements with Hydro-Quebec, like a reasonable person, he would not be in jail today. It was his quarrelsome character that drove him to fight back, to sue and ultimately want revenge.
Moreover, Dubé “did not mince his words” in commenting on the work of the judge and the prosecution during his misdemeanor trial in which he was convicted in 2018.
He has always rejected the evidence presented to the Tribunal, which he compared to a “beautiful little novel”. “He had the answer to everything,” summed up the journalist who had covered this high-profile trial at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse.
The ex-star pilot asked for proof that a plane could do the type of sabotage he was accused of. He demanded that the maneuver, which has always been kept under national secrecy, be reproduced in a protected area. For him, the demonstration of the Crown did not hold water.
“We are not able to demonstrate the wrongdoing”, reiterated again in 2018 the ex-pilot, who said he was rather a victim in this case.
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