Andre Lavallee, vice-president of the Montreal executive committee and the third-ranked politician at City Hall, admits he was once a member of the Front de liberation du Quebec.

Lavallee told CTV he participated in the robbery of a bingo safe at a downtown Montreal church in 1971 when he was a 19-year-old college student.

"I was a student, we were doing stupid things and I closed the door after that and never came back on this," said Lavallee.

Money from the robbery was used to finance FLQ activities about a year after the group's members kidnapped and killed Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte, triggering a national crisis.

Came clean to Mayor

The veteran politician says he has been asked multiple times by journalists about his FLQ connections, but he only told Mayor Gerald Tremblay on Wednesday.

"Each time the question was asked to me by a journalist I answered to the question," said Lavallee, adding that he does not know why reporters never wrote about his FLQ past until now.

However, Lavallee said that over the summer, he got a strange reaction when he declined an invitation to run for rival municipal party Vision Montreal.

"One organizer told me that you will have to work with the confidence of your choice," said Lavallee.

Vision Montreal mayoral candidate Louise Harel issued a statement on Thursday saying she learned of Lavallee's past in newspaper articles on Thursday, saying "to find those responsible for divulging this information you have to look within the strongly divided ranks of Union Montreal."

However Lavallee said that Harel knew of his past when he worked for her, when she was Municipal Affairs minister.

Wrote FLQ statement

Lavallee says he was never involved in violence, and when asked if he regretted participating in the robbery, he said "I'm very proud of what I've been doing since that time. I would like to be judged on these things."

Then he added: "Should we regret? It was stupid. Shall I say I regret, I regret, I regret? I'm looking forward. I'm looking to the future."

Lavalle also acknowledges that he wrote a communiqu� for an east-end cell of the terrorist organization.

The cell was infiltrated by police and its members were later charged with theft and fined $25.

Lavallee says he does not have a criminal record.

Biography

Lavalle is mayor of the east-end Rosemont-La-Petite-Patrie borough.

He is also a longtime member of the Parti Quebecois who served under one-time PQ minister Louise Harel.

Harel is now running against Tremblay, but Lavallee says he's staying with Tremblay's team.