Judge signed off on ‘bait’ to lure MNA Ouellette, warrants show
One of four people UPAC targeted after sensitive information leaked
At the time of his arrest in October, which he denounced as a setup by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, Liberal MNA Guy Ouellette was under surveillance and suspected of sharing sensitive information about an ongoing investigation with the media.
Several warrants unsealed Thursday confirmed Ouellette was one of four people targeted by Quebec’s Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) last fall after a series of articles and television reports led the unit to believe someone was leaking information to journalists.
“I have reasonable and probable grounds to believe that Guy Ouellette obtained or attempted to obtain information from police officers or members of UPAC to share with the media,” UPAC investigator Jean-Frédérick Gagnon wrote in affidavits drafted in support of search warrants.
The extent of what was stolen from UPAC was unknown, Gagnon added, and the leaks were believed to still be ongoing. Ouellette has not been charged in connection with the investigation.
His arrest, on Oct. 25, set off a political scandal and led to a heated showdown between the National Assembly and the police squad.
Almost immediately, Ouellette called the incident a politically motivated “coup” against him as head of the institutions committee, which is seeking to bring more rigorous standards to UPAC.
An associate, Annie Trudel, who is also mentioned in the unsealed documents, has alleged Ouellette was on the verge of exposing collusion between UPAC, the Autorité des marchés financiers and an unspecified company, which together vet companies seeking to bid on public contracts in Quebec.
UPAC, in reply, denied the allegations and said Ouellette simply took “the bait” after failing an “integrity test.”
In the affidavits, which total hundreds of pages and are at times heavily redacted, Gagnon says the unit was asked to look into an alleged case of stolen documents (from an ongoing investigation), breach of trust and obstruction of justice.
The list of six potential charges also includes “influencing or negotiating appointments or dealing in offices,” described in Canada’s Criminal Code as anyone who “solicits, recommends or negotiates in any manner with respect to an appointment to or resignation from an office, in expectation of a direct or indirect reward, advantage or benefit.”
“It is through the media that the investigative team became aware of the existence of the offences,” Gagnon wrote in the documents.
He noted no journalists, or their sources, were under investigation.
Besides Ouellette, the investigation also targeted three others: Richard Despaties, identified in the documents as the only person ever fired by UPAC, Stéphane Bonhomme, a Sûreté du Québec officer, and one other person, whose identity is redacted.
The documents cite various news reports concerning UPAC investigations and attempt to demonstrate how Ouellette and the others could have been connected to them. Several of the news stories mentioned detail UPAC’s arrest of ex-deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau.
Different search warrants were granted during the investigation, including for Ouellette’s car and home, Bonhomme’s home in Boucherville and Despaties’s home in Brossard.
Investigators, the warrants show, were looking for any documents related to Opération Machurer, a UPAC probe of potential illegal financing involving former premier Jean Charest and Quebec Liberal Party financier Marc Bibeau.
Other items of interest included any documents that belonged to the Sûreté du Québec or UPAC; any correspondences between Bonhomme, Despaties, UPAC employees or journalists; and any bills for phone or internet providers.
The unit’s investigative techniques, called a setup by Ouellette following his arrest, were also authorized by a judge in two warrants.
In an affidavit dated Oct. 19, Gagnon described how the unit planned to seize Despaties’s cellphone and then use it to contact Ouellette.
“The objective is to pretend to be Richard Despaties and that he had another ‘scoop’ that could interest Guy Ouellette,” the affidavits state.
Around 9:15 a.m. on Oct. 25, the documents say, officers raided Despaties’s home in Brossard, where they seized his iPhone.
The next steps that took place are redacted, but around 12:56 p.m., an officer left a plastic shopping bag filled with blank papers behind an electric car charging station at a Tim Hortons in Laurier Station, near Quebec City.
At 1:39 p.m., Ouellette arrived at
The objective is to pretend to be Richard Despaties and that he had another ‘scoop’ that could interest Guy Ouellette.
the Tim Hortons, retrieved the bag and put it in his car.
A minute later, officers arrested him.
His car door was still open when they did.
He took his cellphone but was advised to leave it on the seat.
The device was seized by police and immediately put under seal without officers examining its contents.
The plastic bag full of papers was found inside his car, the documents say.
Ouellette, who withdrew from the Liberal caucus following his arrest, was re-admitted in November.