Legislature held up by ethics debates in question periods
Countdown to recess sees dust-up on day meant to be devoted to La Presse bill
QUEBEC Hurtling to the finish line, politicians in the National Assembly Thursday were scrambling to tie up loose ends, thumbing their noses at their ethics commissioner and suspending the usual rules to fast-track a bill making La Presse a non-profit trust.
With the clock ticking down to the recess of the legislature Friday, the Liberal decision to side with Brome-Missisquoi MNA Pierre Paradis in his feud with the legislature’s ethics commissioner, Ariane Mignolet, over his housing allowance came back to haunt them.
In an unprecedented move, the normally discreet commissioner Mignolet issued a statement in which she said she is “concerned” that the Liberal house leader Jean-Marc Fournier meddled in the case by requesting an outside legal opinion of her report, which concluded Paradis violated housing allowance rules.
That second opinion, written by lawyer Robert De Blois, poked holes in the commissioner’s findings and was invoked by the Liberals for their decision Thursday to vote massively against Mignolet’s suggestion that Paradis be sanctioned and made to pay a fine of $25,000.
Taken amid a chorus of catcalls and heckling, the final vote was 61 (all Liberals) against the commissioner’s recommendations and 45 for (all the opposition MNAs). Two independents abstained.
The issue exploded on the floor of the legislature during the two separate question periods that had to be held in order to invoke closure to speedily adopt Bill 400, which will allow the La Presse+ media company to become a nonprofit organization.
One day after the opposition parties accused the Liberals of wanting to protect Paradis, Parti Québécois leader Jean-François Lisée resumed the attack saying he believes he now knows the real reason the Liberals went to bat for Paradis.
Quoting from a 25-page letter Paradis sent to all MNAs a day before the vote, Lisée flipped to the last page in which Paradis, a former cabinet minister, reminds his former colleagues who he is and what’s at stake.
“MNAs have an important duty, that of remembering,” Paradis said. “And after 37 years as an MNA, I intend to honour that.
“I am gradually regaining my strength and memory, and whether it is as a candidate or otherwise, I intend to participate in the next election campaign. Let your con- science be your guide as you vote.”
Lisée was quick to spin the message as a kind of threat from Paradis to his old party.
“This MNA is saying to you, ‘If you don’t vote the right way (for me), I have 37 years of Liberal secrets that I am prepared to reveal during the election campaign,” Lisée fired across the floor at Premier Philippe Couillard:
Caught off guard, Couillard returned to his previous argument that the issue is one of principle and giving Paradis a fair hearing.
But Coalition Avenir Québec leader François Legault took up
MNAs have an important duty, that of remembering. And after 37 years as an MNA, I intend to honour that.
the charge, accusing the Liberals of trying to discredit the ethics commissioner.
“We don’t need any lectures from the premier when it comes to ethics,” Legault said. “He has become the veritable successor of (former leader) Jean Charest.”
Left to pick up the pieces later, Fournier said he was having trouble understanding where Mignolet is coming from. But the dust-up came on a day when Legault found himself in his own quagmire.
The Journal de Montréal reported the CAQ’s party president, Stéphane Le Bouyonnec, who will be its candidate in the La Prairie riding, is also chairman of an Ontario online loan company, Techbanx, that does something that is not allowed in Quebec: charge interest rates as high as 90 per cent on borrowings. In fact, the National Assembly just adopted a bill making such activities illegal in Quebec.
With one of Legault’s own MNAs, Eric Caire, saying the situation does not reflect the values of the party, Le Bouyonnec was forced to issue a statement saying he was leaving the job.
All this happened on the sidelines of a day that was supposed to be devoted to adopting the bill allowing La Presse to become a nonprofit trust. That process was also filled with drama when Fournier announced the government would have to put the usual legislative rules aside because one MNA, independent Martine Ouellet, was blocking the adoption process.
A special session had to be convened Thursday afternoon and well into the evening to adopt the law.