La Presse

One October morning in 2016, reporter Vincent Larouche’s colleague drew his attention to a suicide that had occurred, on the heels of the search warrant of a decontamination business. This narrow lead sparked a long investigation that stretched until now, exposing an industry infiltrated by organized crime and revealing that contractors were routinely — and illegally — dumping contaminated soil. The reporter tracked them relentlessly, and La Presse went to court in order to gain access to search warrants that had been put under seal. This work brought significant changes — not only to the industry itself, but also in municipalities and at provincial legislatures. Quebec and even Ontario have changed their regulations governing this industry.