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“This inquiry confirmed that there was a real problem in Quebec, and that it was much more extensive and ingrained than had been thought,” France Charbonneau, the Quebec Superior Court judge who headed the inquiry, said as she made public the report Tuesday alongside fellow commissioner Renaud Lachance.

But if there’s any silver lining to the infuriating mess, it’s that the extent of the problem may have remained hidden today if not for a handful of whistle-blowers who risked their jobs and possibly their physical safety to bring it to light.

In her remarks, Charbonneau singled out “the courage shown by certain people who were outraged and tried to prevent collusion and corruption.” She named Joseph Farinacci, Ken Pereira, Jean-Paul Beaulieu, François Beaudry, Karen Duhamel and Karine Bouchard, “as well as all the bureaucrats who were able to resist certain undue political pressures.”

Farinacci quit a senior job in the Montreal municipal government rather than follow orders from the mayor’s right-hand-man, Frank Zampino, to favour a buyer of city land.

Pereira went public even before the inquiry was called in 2011 with stories of corruption and organized crime infiltration of his union, the construction wing of the Fédération des Travailleurs du Québec.

Beaulieu was a deputy minister in the Transport Department who in 2003 was shuffled aside after refusing to approve extra charges on a highway project because of suspected collusion. Beaudry was an aide to Beaulieu who tipped him off about the collusion.