Based on new documents, the Liberal opposition maintains that the parliamentary wing of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) trained its employees paid by public funds last spring to perform partisan tasks in anticipation of the next one. election campaign, learned The duty.
On Tuesday, Liberal MP Marc Tanguay asked the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly, Ariane Mignolet, to expand an investigation opened last week to include new elements relating to training given in June to paid employees by the National Assembly working for CAQ members.
“They were not there to serve the population and the tax payer, but they were there to serve the Coalition Avenir Québec and that is illegal,” said Liberal MP Marc Tanguay.
This training, on June 10 and 11, focused on the pre-election organization of the Caquists, in anticipation of the October 2022 election. It was given by the director general and chief organizer of the CAQ, Brigitte Legault, who is paid by political training.
According to Mr. Tanguay, the rules of the National Assembly, however, prevent any “mixing of genres.”
“The only way to behave in this is for partisan work to be done by party employees and for non-partisan work to be done during office hours by those who are paid the National Assembly,” a he argued.
Electoral preparation
Documents obtained by the Liberals from an unidentified source, and forwarded to the To have to, show that the training established a pre-election calendar as well as financial objectives to be reached, which are $ 40,000 per constituency. Each county must also target more than 2,000 Facebook “friends”, 10,000 supporters and 400 members.
The document also shows how to organize the pre-electoral work in the field. In particular, it is suggested to “divide the county into parts of six or eight” with a view to door to door.
Details on the application process show that the 2018 candidates and MPs were to be contacted in view of the opening of the selection committee in August 2021.
A screenshot reveals an email exchange, dated June 14, between a political attaché of the parliamentary wing of the CAQ in the National Assembly, Jacques Morand, and Caroline Dussault, research advisor at the same location. That day, Mr. Morand sent his colleague a document entitled “Pre-electoral calendar 2021-2022”.
“Here is Brigitte’s presentation document from last Friday, the attendance list and the link [Internet] for registration with the Trois-Rivières general council to be sent to the county offices, ”he wrote.
Ms. Dussault then forwarded the document to a group identified in the recipient field as “Pers. speak counties ”.
“Several of you wrote to us for the link for the presentation last Friday. In order to facilitate its consultation, here it is attached. Do not hesitate to refer to us in case of need ”, she wrote last June.
A wall
Ms. Dussault referred to a training given on Thursday, June 10, from 6:30 p.m. to 8 p.m., and Friday, June 11, from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. by Ms. Legault, explained a spokesperson for the CAQ parliamentary wing. , Marc Danis.
“No resource of the parliamentary wing of the CAQ is used for partisan purposes,” he assured in a written statement. In the office of the Chief Government Whip, the directive to employees has always been clear: there must be a wall between our duties in the National Assembly and partisan activities. “
The CAQ spokesperson ensures that the two training sessions were attended by the constituency employees during their free time.
The Friday session had been scheduled “for certain members who had not been able to attend the day before and who were on an atypical schedule, or on leave”.
“It is important to note that almost all of our constituency employees were teleworking at that time, and that we regularly remind them that partisan training must be taken outside of working hours,” said Mr. Danis.
Last week, the Liberals obtained the opening of an investigation by Ms. Mignolet, into training on advertising placement given on November 10 by two employees paid by the CAQ to constituency employees. The Liberals were already claiming that this training would constitute a use of public funds for partisan purposes.
At the end of the week, Prime Minister François Legault had to defend himself following a first complaint formulated by the PLQ and the opening of the investigation by Ms. Mignolet.
Mr. Legault argued on Saturday that the training was aimed at showing employees of MPs to distinguish between partisan ads and those that can be paid for with public funds.