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OTTAWA — Federal NDP Leader Tom Mulcair says he was contacted by the provincial police anti-corruption squad in Quebec to discuss a suspected 17-year-old bribe offered to him.

Mulcair says he never reached out to the police himself because he had no proof a bribe was actually being offered at a 1994 meeting with the now-controversial ex-mayor of Laval, Que.

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Mulcair, who back then was a political rookie seeking provincial office for the first time, said he never looked to see what was in an envelope offered by then-mayor Gilles Vaillancourt.

He said he refused the envelope, cut short the meeting, and kept his distance from the powerful mayor of the suburb north of Montreal.

“I never saw cash,” Mulcair said during a session with reporters Tuesday.

“There was never a question of cash.”

At that point it was “absolutely impossible” that coming forward would have resulted in criminal charges, said Mulcair, who is a lawyer.