Ex-PQ leader pleads guilty to drunk driving, obstruction of justice
Boisclair gets unconditional discharge, fined, receives one-year driving ban
Former Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair has been fined $2,000 and forbidden to drive a motor vehicle for a year after being convicted Thursday of impaired driving in Quebec City last November.
Boisclair pleaded guilty to impaired driving, refusing a sobriety test and obstruction of justice.
The former PQ MNA was arrested Nov. 9 in Quebec City after his car struck a lamppost. Taken to a police station, the 51-year-old Boisclair refused a breathalyzer test and tried to intimidate police officers.
The day of his arrest, Boisclair later posted on his Facebook page that, “I must now face my responsibilities and accept the consequences of my actions. I have made a great mistake, I am deeply sorry and I will now face my responsibilities in connection with what has happened.
“My only consolation is that the situation I created only had consequences for myself. If someone reading this message today wonders tonight, after a few drinks, about their ability to drive and decides not to, this post will have shown its usefulness.”
Boisclair repeated that message Thursday after leaving the Quebec City courtroom.
Judge Gilles Charest said he was convinced it was in Boisclair’s best interests to give him an unconditional discharge which, while recording his guilt for the offence, does not give him a criminal record. Boisclair, who now sits as chairman of the Institut de développement urbain du Québec, will be able to continue to travel to the U.S.
Boisclair led the PQ from November 2005 until May 2007 and was leader of the official opposition in the National Assembly.
He was also Quebec’s delegate-general to New York from 2012-13.
Presse Canadienne