The mayor of a peaceful small town in the Laurentians found himself the center of viral videos on TikTok against his will after an escalating row with a real estate developer.
“It’s crazy! All my relatives have been writing to me about these videos for three days, and strangers are also sending me messages on Facebook. I said to myself: Let’s see, what is that,” Francis Corbeil launched scornfully.
However, the mayor of Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, a commune of around 1300 inhabitants, does not want to laugh when he speaks to the journal of his new neighbor from the Galarneau crescent.
Courtesy photo
The mayor of Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides, Francis Corbeil.
Robert Maurice builds a house in a wooded area behind Mr. Corbeil’s house. The workers at his construction site used to drive on the mayor’s private road to get to their destination faster.
“When they arrived early in the summer, we didn’t mind that they used our private road a few times with their concrete mixers. The problem is that in the meantime we have also been working on our land. […] We have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars with us,” explains Francis Corbeil.
The SQ intervenes
The mayor’s landscape gardener asked Francis Corbeil and his spouse Christian Plante last week not to drive on their private road.
“Time for the ground to level out and not put any pressure on the garage, which is a garden level,” he says.
In this context, Christian Plante politely asked the team hired by Robert Maurice last Thursday to use the other two available accesses and not to use his private road in the future.
“Their concrete mixers could have damaged our house, which we just put a lot of money into. He was pushed and insulted by a contractor. The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) intervened and he was arrested,” says the mayor.
The latter also states that criminal charges have been filed against the contractor in question. Mr Corbeil adds that they have parked their vehicles on their private road to ensure this episode does not repeat itself.
A man arrested
Sûreté du Québec (SQ) spokesman Nicolas Scholtus confirms that the police intervened in Sainte-Lucie-des-Laurentides last Thursday because of a “conflict”.
“A 66-year-old man was arrested at the scene. He was then released with a promise to appear at a later date,” Agent Scholtus reports briefly.
According to SQ, the person could still be charged with “assault”.
Photo Alex Roy-Maurice/Facebook
Portrait of Alex Roy-Maurice, Head of Condo514.
Mocked up in videos
However, the couple was not at the end of their troubles. Robert Maurice’s son, a real estate developer named Alex Roy-Maurice, decided to interfere in this affair.
“The construction site is upstairs. We just want to drive through with small concrete mixers to get to the construction site. But what do we have here? The mayor’s tank and his friend’s tank blocked us on a Sunday afternoon,” protested Alex Roy-Maurice, owner of the Condo514 company.
Note that one of his videos on TikTok on the subject, posted without explaining the conflict, has been viewed more than 160,000 times as of Tuesday. The promoter claims the mayor is in “bad times”.
“I help my father build his retirement home,” he says. […] Part of this road is private, but another is shared with me,” claims Alex Roy-Maurice.
He assures that no employee insulted or attacked Christian Plante last Thursday. Robert Maurice’s son also mentions that the other two accesses to his father’s site make their job more difficult.
But what is his goal when he posts viral videos on TikTok mocking Francis Corbeil? Mr. Roy-Maurice has twice dodged this question from the Journal.