After being charged three years ago, Montagano's case was to have gone to trial this week. He had been preparing for it on his own for the past 18 months without the aid of a lawyer.

The charges were laid when Montagano and members of the Côte des Neiges Residents’ Association, a group he founded, affixed signs to lamp posts advertising one of their meetings.

Their grassroots zeal, which is a common feature among residents of Montreal’s suburban cities where it is not discouraged, only invited a crackdown by the borough. Inspectors working for the borough responded to the signs by charging Montagano, the group’s president, with breaking a bylaw on clealiness.

Before the charges were laid, prosecutions for putting up signs on lamp posts were relatively rare in the borough. Montagano claims, based on information he gained in an access-to-information request, that in the year prior to the start of his case, a total of three charges were made against alleged offenders, but the year after there were 49, of which 22 were against him personally.

If convicted, he stood to pay an $80 fine, plus $25 in additional courts costs, on each charge, for a total of $2,310. Montagano says he suspects “the city had to go around and give more fines for violating that law, and not to make it look like they were specifically targeting myself.”

Applebaum had claimed in 2005 when the charges were made that Montagano’s prosecution was coincidental, because a borough cleanliness campaign had just gotten underway. Montagano, who for years has been a thorn in Applebaum’s side at meetings of the borough council, is convinced that the borough mayor played a key role in his prosecution. “It’s impossible for me to prove,” he said. “It’s like the Gomery Enquiry.

“We know that many of the people who were involved in that were guilty or responsible for participating in the corruption racket, but the actual capability of someone to be able to prove that is very difficult. I was hoping the trial would do that, but I am happy now that I don’t have to go to trial. Obviously I won’t have to go through an antagonizing and frustrating experience.

“I think that Michael Applebaum should resign,” he added. “I really do not think he has the moral authority to be the mayor of the borough anymore … Michael Applebaum is obviously the mayor of the borough, and obviously he is the person who at the end of the day is responsible for what happens in this borough. And I hold him directly accountable and responsible for the fact that it took me so long to resolve this case.” The Monitor was unavailable to reach Applebaum by deadline for his reaction.