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The town of Pincourt has filed a $65,000 defamation lawsuit against Canadian Tire over a television ad it claims tarnished the municipality’s reputation by falsely depicting pothole problems motorists face in spring.

Pincourt director general Michel Perrier said the town opted to pursue legal action since the advertisement, which includes scenes of Cardinal-Léger Blvd., one of the town’s main arteries, portrayed the town in a negative light.

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“They were describing our roads like it was a Swiss-cheese type of thing. That you would drive there and the end result would be that your car would get broken and that’s when Canadian Tire comes to the rescue,” Perrier said. “It was a very negative publicity towards the town. When we asked, ‘Why choose us?’ They didn’t have any answers to that.”

Perrier said the French-language TV ad hurt the town’s reputation by falsely depicting the condition of its roads.

“We are trying to attract promoters. We are trying to attract investors. We are trying to create an interest for our town, and then you have a company like that coming up with a negative publicity based on nothing. They probably picked the city at random. They probably thought, ‘Pincourt is a small town, they won’t say a word.’ They never came to us to ask permission or for a permit (to film in the town).”