Former premier Charest sues Quebec
Mont real • Former Quebec premier Jean Charest announced on Friday he has launched a lawsuit against the provincial government and UPAC, its anticorruption unit, over leaks to the media of “confidential information about my private life and that of my family.”
Charest cited a UPAC investigation, Mâchurer, launched to investigate allegations of illegal financing of the Quebec Liberal Party, as the reason for the $1-million lawsuit. In a statement Charest said he had been willing to drop legal action against the government in exchange for an apology, and had also offered to engage in mediation “to reach an honourable settlement.” The former premier said his offers had been refused. “Thus, the Quebec government obliges me to turn to courts.”
In his lawsuit, Charest alleges that on April 24, 2017, confidential information about his private life “was illegally leaked to Groupe Quebecor and published by them on that date in the Journal de Montréal, the Journal de Québec” and other Groupe Quebecor platforms. Other media reported on what had been published by Quebecor.
The articles described how Charest and his friend Marc Bibeau, a fundraiser for the Quebec Liberal Party, had been under police surveillance since 2016. UPAC investigators were probing allegations that public contracts were awarded by the Charest government to construction companies and engineering firms that made generous donations to the Liberal party. The allegations surfaced during the Charbonneau Commission.
The suit notes how, on May 4, 2017, Robert Lafrenière, the head of UPAC at the time, testified before a National Assembly committee and confirmed that the leaked information came from people working underneath him. He also said UPAC’S data systems were only isolated from other government systems after the stories appeared.
Charest’s lawsuit alleges that through “their acts and their omissions,” UPAC personnel violated his rights and constituted “gross negligence and failure to meet the requirements of good faith.”
Lafrenière told the committee the leaks would be investigated by two members of his personnel, and Charest questions why the probe wasn’t turned over to Quebec’s Bureau des enquêtes indépendantes, the organization that investigates when a person is killed or injured during a police intervention.
The investigation into the leaks was announced more than a year later.
Lafrenière resigned as director of UPAC in November 2018. Many of the investigations done while he was in charge have failed to produce convictions when put through the test of a trial.
Charest is seeking $50,000 in moral damages and $1 million in punitive damages for what he considers a violation of his rights under Quebec’s Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms.