Liberals stuck with more scandals
QUEBEC The Quebec Liberals were hoping for a fresh start after finishing the last session lurching from one crisis to the next. What they got instead was a fresh dose of controversy as soon as the new session of the legislature began Tuesday. In the span of three days, the Liberals were already on their heels, fending off allegations of favouritism and political espionage.
The debacle this week at the National Assembly is best explained in painting terms, according to Québec solidaire MNA Amir Khadir.
“Another colour, another motif was added to the grand fresco that is the Quebec Liberal Party’s poor ethical record,” he said Thursday, at the end of a particularly rough first week of session, which saw the governing Liberals stumble on two major ethical files.
“The portrait we see is a desolate one,” Khadir said. “It is the portrait of an organization that will do anything to be in power,” he said, calling it disgraceful to try to spy on another party. “We know that it’s led to the fall of governments, American presidents.”
Khadir referred to allegations of espionage that almost took on Bond-esque proportions this week, but which were vehemently denied by the Liberals. He attacked Premier Philippe Couillard’s judgment in defending a Coalition Avenir Québec defector at the centre of the spying controversy.
Yan Plante is suspected by the CAQ of having transferred confidential and strategic party documents over to his personal email, before jumping ship to the Liberals and securing a job in the premier’s office.
Plante was slapped with a legal warning from CAQ lawyers earlier this week urging him to destroy the alleged documents and produce a sworn statement detailing how he may have used the information. A second legal warning was delivered to his boss, Jean-Louis Dufresne, who is the premier’s chief of staff.
The plot thickened on Thursday when Plante handed in his resignation. “Over the past few days, false allegations and lies ... have circulated about me. I’ve decided to quit my functions to focus all my energy on defending my reputation and integrity,” he said in a statement.
It was the second time the Couillard Liberals jumped to the defence of a CAQ defector. Earlier this month, ex-CAQ employee Frédéric Schautaud, who was applying to work in Economic Development Minister Dominique Anglade’s office, apologized for copying CAQ documents.
Former cop-turned-Liberal MNA Robert Poëti sounded off to reporters: “Nobody can accept the theft of documents, it’s clear.”
At an event in Arthabaska late Thursday, after defending Plante all week, Couillard conceded that Plante resigning was “the thing to do under the circumstances.”
But the Liberals will likely face more questions next week from the CAQ about its party documents. After the party gave Plante and Dufresne until 5 p.m. Friday to respond to its demands, CAQ MNA Simon Jolin-Barrette released a statement late Friday afternoon saying lawyers for Plante asked for more time, which the CAQ agreed to, giving them until Monday night. The CAQ hadn’t received anything from Dufresne and will discuss with its lawyers to determine the next steps to take, Jolin-Barrette added. The CAQ has also asked for a meeting with the Sûreté du Québec next week, the statement said.
Opposition parties argued this week either Couillard doesn’t understand ethics, or he is badly advised by his chief of staff.
They said Couillard must next fire Dufresne.
“When you are in the premier’s office, you have to have all the integrity that goes with the job,” JolinBarrette said.
Dufresne’s name has come up dozens of times since May. Opposition parties accuse Dufresne, a longtime friend of Couillard’s, of mismanaging several key files, such as the allegations of no-bid contracts and intimidation at the transport department, and the sale of Investissement Québec’s 9.8-per cent stake in Rona.
There is also some internal party grumbling about Dufresne’s management style.
How are Liberal ministers supposed to adopt ethical behaviour when the premier’s judgment is poor, Khadir and PQ MNA Agnès Maltais asked. Both called on Transport Minister Laurent Lessard to step down this week, as allegations that Lessard’s friend, Yvon Nadeau, benefited from government subsidies reached new heights.
The PQ charged that Nadeau, who worked in Lessard’s riding office between 2003 and 2013, and again in 2014, obtained a $3 million subsidy, the maximum amount he was eligible to receive, for his biofuel company, Pyrobiom. The PQ added Nadeau also helped a developer obtain a $1-million government subsidy to renovate the Adstock ski resort near Thetford Mines, and then got the contract to manage the mountainside cottages, while he was still working for the minister. Lessard is the godfather of Nadeau’s son. Nadeau’s wife, Stéphanie Donato, also worked for Lessard, from 2012 to 2015.
“In both cases, Mr. Nadeau obtained direct advantages (thanks to) government subsidies,” Maltais said, adding the ethics commissioner is investigating the situation with Pyrobiom, but not Adstock, since the subsidy was given before 2010.
Lessard, the government’s third transport minister, at times struggled to defend himself. “I have acted correctly,” he repeated, emphasizing he sought the ethics commissioner’s opinion before rehiring Nadeau in 2014. Couillard backed Lessard, declaring him to be an excellent minister.
The Liberals started the fall session Tuesday saying the theme would be “prosperity and renewed confidence” for all Quebecers.