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MONTREAL – The first few times Montreal businessman Michel Leclerc ran up against a construction cartel seeking to control bids on city contracts, he dug in his heels. When the head of a rival company offered him $50,000 to withdraw one winning bid and paid a visit to advise him against bidding on another project, he ignored the intimidation.

A bomb threat was called in to his office, a company vehicle was stolen and vandalized, but he went ahead and took the jobs. “

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You have to stand up and be stubborn to be able to get work for yourself and your employees,” Mr. Leclerc testified Monday at the Charbonneau inquiry into corruption.

That was his attitude in 1997, but it did not take Mr. Leclerc long to realize his company, Terramex Inc., could get work and avoid grief by playing the game.

In 1998 he was preparing a bid for a sidewalk contract when Nicolo Milioto, the owner of Mivela Construction Inc. and Montreal’s self-described Mr. Sidewalk, came to see him.