Ex-Quebec lieutenant-governor gets jail time for fraud and breach of trust

Former Quebec lieutenantgovernor Lise Thibault was given an 18-month jail term on Wednesday and ordered to reimburse a total of $300,000 to Ottawa and Quebec after pleading guilty to fraud and breach of trust charges.

Thibault, 76, was charged after a 2007 report by the federal and provincial auditors general revealed she claimed more than $700,000 in improper expenses when she held the vice-regal post between 1997 and 2007.

Her trial heard the money was spent on gifts, trips, parties, meals and skiing and golf lessons.

The Crown was seeking a four-year prison term and the reimbursement of $430,000.

Her lawyer said last May the maximum the wheelchairbound Thibault should pay back is $372,000 and that $272,000 should come from money left in her foundation, which helps the disabled.

Of the $300,000 Quebec court Judge Carol St-Cyr ordered Thibault to reimburse, $200,000 goes to the federal government and $100,000 to Quebec.

Thibault originally pleaded not guilty but switched pleas last December because, according to defence lawyer Marc Labelle, she came to a better understanding of the evidence and the law.

She testified at the trial she had little to show financially for her time as vice-regal — that a divorce ate into her savings and that she lived on a $30,000 pension.

In 2014, St-Cyr ruled against a pair of motions filed by Labelle, who argued the case should be dismissed because the accused benefited from royal immunity.