Michael Applebaum

Michael Mark Applebaum (born February 10, 1963) is a Canadian former politician who served as interim Mayor of Montreal between his appointment by the city council on November 16, 2012, and his resignation on June 18, 2013. On June 17, 2013, he was arrested and indicted on 14 charges including fraud, conspiracy, breach of trust, and corruption in municipal affairs He resigned the following day. On January 26, 2017, Applebaum was found guilty of eight of these charges, and subsequently sentenced to a year in prison and two years probation for extorting $60 000 worth of bribes from real estate developers as borough mayor in Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce between 2006 and 2012. On June 6, 2017, Applebaum was granted parole two months after serving one-sixth of his sentence when he admitted to his crimes.

Applebaum was first elected city councilor for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce on November 6, 1994, as a member of the now defunct Parti des Montréalais. In 2001, he became a founding member of the Union Montréal party and rose to prominence as part of Mayor Gérald Tremblay's administration, serving as borough mayor of Côte-des-Neiges–Notre-Dame-de-Grâce from January 1, 2002 to November 21, 2012, and becoming chair of the city's powerful executive committee in 2011. By 2006, he operated a "stratagem of corruption" in the borough, and was investigated by UPAC, Quebec's anti-corruption police force. He was appointed interim mayor by city council after leaving the party as increased scrutiny of corruption within the administration prompted Tremblay's resignation.