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 still make now 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.
“We know that in 1995, tens of thousands of people who did not have the right to vote voted, but we do not know exactly how many millions of dollars were spent illegally on the No side […] Part of the answer may be found in the testimony and documents of the Grenier commission,” the party leader said in an interview during the march that took place in Montreal on Monday for National Patriots Day.
“Seeking truth, just getting the truth, is part of the patriotic drive to serve the common good. Without the truth, without rigorous facts, it is difficult to aim for a just society,” added Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon.
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”.
“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 Parti Québécois in its missive.
“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 Quebeckers the whole truth about this period in our history when people flouted our basic democratic rules,” also 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 “Les secrets d’Option Canada”, in 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.