CAQ calls for investigation of former PQ leader Boisclair over contract
Granted subsidy for church project while a junior minister
QUEBEC — Former Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair is threatening legal action against Coalition Avenir Québec MNA Jacques Duchesneau unless he retracts statements made in the National Assembly on Wednesday suggesting Boisclair’s past drug use influenced the awarding of public subsidies.
Earlier in the day, Duchesneau, the CAQ’s public security critic, called for a public inquiry into Boisclair’s actions while he was a junior minister.
Duchesneau, noting testimony at the Charbonneau Commission by Paul Sauvé, whose LM Sauvé construction company — which has been linked to the Hells Angels — had a contract to uncover St. James United Church in Montreal, said Boisclair lacked judgment in granting a $2.6-million subsidy for the project.
The Charbonneau Commission testimony prompted Duchesneau, acrusading anticorruption investigator and former Montreal police chief, to draw links between the criminal organization and the fact that Boisclair has admitted to using cocaine before.
Duchesneau wondered whether Boisclair might have put himself in a situation where he felt forced to hand out that contract just before an election.
“I am making a link between the $2.6 million, someone associated with the Hells Angels, and someone who consumed (drugs) and made decisions,” Duschesneau told reporters, before making similar remarks in TV interviews.
Boisclair was junior municipal affairs minister in the PQ government of Bernard Landry at the time.
He was named last year by the current PQ government as Quebec’s representative in New York.
Duchesneau brandished a letter signed by Boisclair and dated April 10, 2003, four days before an election that brought the Liberal government of Jean Charest to power, announcing the $2.6-million subsidy for the $5.2-million project.
Duchesneau said Boisclair announced the grant “to his friend” (Sauvé) aware that the PQ government would be defeated, four days later.
Boisclair issued a statementlateWednesdaydenying Duchesneau’s allegations.
Duchesneau would not reveal how he got the letter, addressed to St. James minister Arlen Bonnar, saying he had to protect his source.
Duchesneau said Boisclair should be recalled from his post and suspended until a public inquiry clears up the circumstances of awarding the grant.
In the National Assembly, International Relations Minister Jean-François Lisée told Duchesneau he has spoken to Boisclair, who said he would gladly testify at the Charbonneau Commission, but that no one has contacted him.
Lisée rejected Duchesneau’s proposal for a separate investigation of Boisclair, noting that the Charbonneau Commission is in place, as well as UPAC, the permanent anti-corruption unit, and
Jean-François Lisée rejected Jacques Duchesneau’s proposal for an
investigation.
Operation Hammer, now part of UPAC.
Duchesneau called for a separate investigation of Boisclair, explaining that the mandate of the Charbonneau Commissions is to identify stratagems of corruption, not to deal with specific cases.
In a statement Wednesday night, Boisclair served notice that he has instructed his lawyers to send Duchesneau a legal warning letter, calling on him immediately “to apologize, retract and admit the prejudice to Mr. Boisclair,” or face legal proceedings.
“These recent declarations and the vicious association towards me are highly defamatory and prejudicial to my reputation,” he said. “As well, the obvious intention is to harm me.”
There was “nothing illegal or illegitimate” about the subsidy for the church project, he said.
“I have known Paul Sauvé for years,” Boisclair added. “He participated in (party) financing activities. In this regard, to my knowledge, the legal requirements were scrupulously respected.”