Richard, 38, said receiving the written warning - "If you talk too much, you will die" - at his St. Lazare home just before dawn Thursday is only pushing him harder to denounce wrongdoing before the Commons public-accounts committee next month in Ottawa. He reported the threat to provincial police.
As a high-ranking official with Groupaction, one of the advertising companies at the centre of the federal government's sponsorship scandal over alleged misspending of $100 million in public funds, Richard said he witnessed first-hand the "incestuous relationship between politicians and advertisers."
As vice-president (corporate affairs) for Groupaction in 1996 and 1997, Richard said he "saw too much. I know how it works."
[. . . .] Richard is prepared to tell about "everything I saw - the facts."
He said the latest threats, coupled with attempts by civil servants and some of the leaders in Montreal's communications industry to discredit him the past seven years, "just proves that what I have to say is true."
Now president of the small advertising company he founded, rebelles.com, Richard said he wants two things to come out of the sponsorship mess: "to know where my money went and an equal chance to win government contracts."
He estimates having spent as much as $200,000 since 1995 trying to win bids for government ad contacts, without ever getting one.
Canadians applaud you, Mr. Richard. May you be safe.
Alain Richard told CFCF News in Montreal that around 4 a.m. on March 25, he woke up to a ringing doorbell. When he opened the front door, he found a message.
"There was a message on my doorknob, saying if I talk too much, I'm going to die," he said.
Richard worked as a vice-president for Groupaction marketing for two years, and left in 1997. He claims he was fired for raising concerns about questionable government contracts.
His testimony before the Public Accounts Committee is expected to detail how reports were photocopied and time sheets were forged.
Last week the Toronto Star reported that Richard had already told RCMP investigators that Canadian taxpayers were billed $1.5 million for reports worth $50,000 or less.
