Péladeau re-thinks guilty plea over effect on Québecor

Quebec media mogul Pierre Karl Péladeau says he will appeal his guilty plea to an infraction of Quebec’s electoral law now that he realizes the “extent of the possible consequences (the plea) has for Québecor, for its shareholders and for its employees.”

The former head of the Parti Québécois pleaded guilty last month to violating Quebec’s electoral law after he personally paid off the debts accumulated during his campaign for the party leadership in May of 2015. The law calls for such debts to paid by public contributions.

In a message posted on his Facebook page Monday evening, Péladeau acknowledged that his guilty plea could affect Québecor’s ability to maintain or acquire Quebec government contracts because of provincial anti-corruption legislation that bars companies with executives convicted of various offences from doing business with the government.

“It has become essential to examine things through a perspective of fairness, as much for Québecor as for its thousands of employees and its partners who were, and still are, completely outside of my choice to engage in active politics ... and my personally refunding my campaign debt,” he wrote.

Noting that while an MNA, he himself had voted for the legislation to fight corruption and collusion, Péladeau insisted he had never engaged in any act that would qualify as such.

“I never engaged in fraudulent electoral practices, practices for which this law was conceived. Quite the contrary. I was open and I paid my debts. However the future of thousands of dollars in contractual commitments ... may become uncertain.”

Péladeau wrote that the Quebec Treasury Board and its president, as well as the premier, have the power to decree an exception to the automatic application of the law in his case.

In a statement released Tuesday evening Québecor said public contracts represent “a very small proportion” of its revenue. Presse Canadienne