Ex-con runs for mayor of village

Served four years in death of girlfriend

Most ex-cons usually lay pretty low and try to lead a life that’s anything but public. Not Paul Liberty. Liberty, convicted in the 2006 death of his girlfriend, is now running for mayor of Kazabazua, a village in west Quebec.

“Unlike other politicians, I have nothing to hide. I have no shame, and everybody that knows me knows that I was innocent,” said Liberty, 53.

His girlfriend, Line Renaud, lay unconscious on the floor of their trailer home for two days before Liberty drove her to the hospital in Maniwaki, about 135 kilometres north of Ottawa.

He told the Citizen she had blacked out after a night of heavy drinking. He said he blacked out, too, off and on, for two days and said he didn’t realize she had been unconscious for two full days.

She fell into a coma and died months later in hospital.

‘I have no shame, and everybody that knows me knows that I was innocent.’

PAUL LIBERTY Ex-con running for mayor of Kazabazua

Liberty was arrested on charges of criminal negligence causing death and was refused bail. He was convicted and sentenced to four years in a federal prison near Montreal.

He served the full fouryear term and returned to his hometown only to find his trailer home wasn’t quite how he remembered it.

“What wasn’t wrecked had been stolen,” he said.

And finding work has been hard for the ex-con, but he says it has got more to do with the local economy and less to do with his criminal record.

Unemployed since he got out of prison in 2009, Liberty is now running for mayor against two other candidates, including the incumbent.

Liberty says he was wrongfully convicted because key evidence was allegedly not disclosed at trial. He claims he’s going to clear his name.

The police version, according to a Low Down to Hull and Back News story at the time, is that of a violent domestic fight that left Renaud knocked unconscious. The police also said he did nothing to help her for two days.

Liberty doesn’t dispute that it took two days to drive his dying girlfriend to a hospital. But he claims he, too, had blacked out and had lost track of what day it was. He figured she was just passed out, sleeping off the effects of another “binge.”

Liberty is running on an anti-corruption platform. His campaign signs, translated from French, mean “Hold the corrupt to account.”

“I’m just a nobody from nowhere with nothing, so I can’t be in any conflict of interest when it comes to municipal and business dealings,” said Liberty, reached at his trailer in the village of 1,000.

“And I got all kinds of time to do the job, and people should vote for me because I will do what I say I’m going to do,” he said about ushering in tough conflict-of-interest rules if elected.

The Quebec municipal election is Nov. 3.