(Montreal) The Parti Québécois wants to know what is hidden in the archives of the Grenier commission, which investigated the financing of the “No” camp during the 1995 referendum, and asks the Legault government to declassify all the documents that make still today the subject of a publication ban.
In a press release published Monday, National Patriots’ Day, the leader of the sovereignist formation, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, affirmed that he had obtained a legal opinion which confirms that the Government of Quebec can, “by simple law, declassify all information obtained during this investigation.
“Judge Grenier nevertheless made discoveries that are still secret at the present time: what the 90 witnesses told him during the closed hearings and more than 4,500 documents that they filed in evidence are stamped with a non-dissemination, non-communication and non-publication order without time limits, ”deplores the party in its missive.
In order to ensure that he receives a concrete response from the Coalition avenir Québec in this matter, the PQ leader intends to table a motion on this subject in the National Assembly “as of this week”.
PHOTO JACQUES BOISSINOT, CANADIAN PRESS ARCHIVES
The leader of the PQ, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon
“To our knowledge, no document or information is classified as such, except for the most serious state secrets. Why hide such important and specific information? There is no reason not to tell Quebecers the whole truth about this period in our history when people flouted our basic democratic rules,” declared Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon in writing.
In January 2006, the Chief Electoral Officer of Quebec gave commissioner Bernard Grenier the mandate to investigate the activities of Option Canada in the months leading up to the 1995 referendum.
This request followed the publication of the book The secrets of Option Canadain which authors Normand Lester and Robin Philpot alleged that Option Canada had incurred expenses during the referendum period in favor of the No option, without declaring these expenses to the official agent of the “No” Committee.