(Ottawa) In the summer of 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic still in the picture, Liberal MP Emmanuella Lambropoulos spent a month and a half in Greece. She has returned there at least twice in 2022, including several weeks during the summer season. His prolonged absences and questionable statements did not go unnoticed in Saint-Laurent, where members of his family controlled the Liberal riding association.
The young elected official, who made headlines a little over a week ago because of her misleading remarks about Bill 96, told the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner that she had stayed in Greece from July 9 to August 23, 2021.
His ticket to Athens, at a cost of $1,500, was paid for by the World Interparliamentary Union of Hellenism, which also assumed the bill of $750 for five nights at the hotel, within the framework of this sponsored trip that the hon. member told the Ethics Watchdog in Ottawa.
Sponsored travel is “travel the cost of which exceeds $200 and which is not fully paid for by the Treasury, by the Member or his party, or by a parliamentary association recognized by the House of Commons”, we read. on the website of the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.
It is rare for these stays to exceed one week and for Members to take advantage of their paid travel to add weeks of personal vacation.
Emmanuella Lambropoulos has again trod the land of her ancestors at least twice in 2022, if we are to believe her publications on Facebook. According to our information, she would have spent several weeks there during the summer, and would not have returned in time for the meeting of the Quebec caucus in Percé, at the end of August.
It has not been possible to obtain more details on these trips on Greek soil: the annual report of sponsored trips has not been published, and the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner has not did not want to provide information on the case of Mme Lambropoulos.
The office of the Montreal elected did not respond to questions from The Press about his comings and goings on both sides of the Atlantic for the past year. Before 2021 – and the pandemic – she had made two sponsored trips: from July 13 to August 2, 2017, and from July 2 to 6, 2018.
“I have rarely seen this”
If he is magnanimous towards the 32-year-old MP, “who made an effort between 2017 and 2023” and who “has a greater presence than in previous years”, the borough mayor of Saint-Laurent, Alan DeSousa agrees that his extended absences are off the charts.
“I have rarely seen that, indeed,” he drops in an interview.
PHOTO PHILIPPE BOIVIN, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Alan DeSousa, Borough Mayor of Saint-Laurent
“You have to recharge your batteries from time to time, but long periods like that are rare, because the nature of our obligations, at the municipal, provincial or federal level, requires contact with our community, a presence on the land”, adds the municipal councillor, whom the Liberal Party of Canada had excluded from the race for the nomination in Saint-Laurent before the by-election won by Mme Lambropoulos in 2017.
PHOTO FRANÇOIS ROY, LA PRESSE ARCHIVES
Yolande James, Emmanuella Lambropoulos and Marwah Rizky, during the Liberal nomination in the riding of Saint-Laurent, in March 2017
Former Liberal and New Democrat MP, Françoise Boivin judges that the elected representative of Saint-Laurent could not have left without the permission of the office of the chief government whip, prefect of caucus discipline, who must know where the MPs “at any time, in case there is an emergency committee meeting during the summer”.
In her former life, the one who now wears the clothes of a political analyst “would not have wanted to take this type of vacation during the summer, because that’s where there are BBQ tours, parties petanque, etc. », and that therefore, « to be absent for a month and a half out of about two summer months, it’s a bit much ». There is, however, no rule that prevents an elected official from taking a long vacation, she points out.
It’s not like at school or in an office, it’s more your constituents who will ask questions about your presence.
Françoise Boivin, former Liberal and New Democrat MP
Chief Government Whip Steven MacKinnon did not respond to our interview requests.
“We feel taken hostage”
M’s work ethicme Lambropoulos is raising eyebrows in his own side, behind the scenes, and has been for quite a while. He is attributed a lack of rigor, as well as messy, even misleading public outings.
Longtime Liberal activists in Saint-Laurent draw similar conclusions.
“We feel taken hostage”, deplores a person who has been involved for years in the political life of this multi-ethnic liberal castle, who asked that his name be withheld for professional reasons because his job does not not authorize to make public declarations.
Incorporated association
It’s hard to imagine the elected official being slapped on the knuckles by the liberal constituency association chaired by her father, Athanasios Lambropoulos, where her mother, Matina Aerikos, is an administrator, and where the role of policy chair is occupied by his aunt, Marie Tsagaropoulos.
An aunt who is also the travel agent that the MP turns to when she wants to get her plane tickets, as evidenced by the public declaration of her six-week stay in Greece in the summer of 2021.
Already, in 2018, the influence of the Lambropoulos family made people cringe.
“You have not ensured any independence to your association, your parents and your aunt have joined the executive. It’s a shame that well-meaning people felt sidelined,” four former association presidents, Henri Paul Labelle, Thomas Welt, Constantin Nedea and Jehú Hernández wrote to the elected official.
They urged Emmanuella Lambropoulos to ask her family members to bow out. “You who denounced your own investiture so much, saying that you were facing the choice of the party, what are you doing today? We are here to serve,” they pleaded.
The MP’s parents and aunt are still in office.
His father is running for president again; a vote was to be held Wednesday evening at the general meeting.
Controversial remarks
If Emmanuella Lambropoulos reappeared on the political radar screen in Ottawa two weeks ago, it was because of a new controversial statement of her own. Here’s that last one again, along with three other eyebrow-raising comments.
Law 96
« Ma coiffeuse, qui vit dans ma circonscription, m’a appelée pour me dire qu’elle avait récemment dû accompagner sa grand-mère chez sa médecin, parce que lors de son dernier rendez-vous, on avait refusé de la servir en anglais. Cette médecin s’adressait à elle en anglais avant l’adoption du projet de loi 96, mais elle ne le fait plus, car elle craint de faire l’objet d’une plainte si elle emploie une autre langue que le français dans le cadre de son travail. »
« Cette aînée a la chance de pouvoir compter sur une petite-fille qui comprend le français et qui peut l’accompagner à ses rendez-vous médicaux, mais il y a dans ma circonscription des centaines, voire des milliers d’aînés qui ne sont peut-être pas aussi chanceux et qui sont peut-être privés des services de santé de base auxquels ils devraient avoir accès. »
– 3 février 2023, Comité permanent des langues officielles
Note : la loi 96 prévoit qu’un professionnel de la santé « ne peut, dans l’exercice de ses activités professionnelles, refuser de fournir une prestation pour le seul motif qu’on lui demande d’utiliser la langue officielle dans l’exécution de cette prestation ».
La langue
« Nous entendons – je ne veux pas qualifier cela de mythe ; je vais laisser le bénéfice du doute –, nous entendons que la langue française est en déclin au Québec. J’ai entendu cela à plusieurs reprises. J’ai besoin de le voir pour le croire. À votre avis, est-ce à cause de la situation en milieu de travail ou d’autres choses, comme les loisirs, peut-être, ou l’aspect social ? À quoi attribuez-vous ce déclin du français au Québec, exactement ? »
– 13 novembre 2020, Comité permanent des langues officielles
Note : en prononçant le mot « déclin », Mme Lambropoulos fait le geste de tracer des guillemets à l’aide de ses doigts (air quotes).
La Turquie « ennemie »
« En tant que Grecque, je sais comment on se sent lorsqu’on est assis ici et qu’on est sans espoir devant des ennemis qui sont plus forts et plus gros et plus intimidants. »
– Novembre 2020, lors d’un rassemblement en soutien à la communauté arménienne en marge du conflit au Haut-Karabakh, région majoritairement peuplée d’Arméniens mais revendiquée par l’Azerbaïdjan avec la collaboration de la Turquie1
La crainte de l’expulsion
« Le gouvernement conservateur […] had such a horrible [bilan en immigration], I know people who ran as candidates in 2015 because they were afraid they were going to be deported. »
– October 14, 2019, during an electoral debate organized by the Moroccans of Canada group
Note: According to Canada Elections Actyou must be a Canadian citizen to be a candidate in a federal election.