François Legault agrees with the leader of the Parti Québécois (PQ), Paul St-Pierre Plamondon: the veil must be lifted on the documents of the Grenier commission, which investigated the financing of the “No” camp during the referendum on sovereignty in 1995.
This is what the head of government said on Tuesday when asked about the PQ’s proposal to legislate to lift the notices of non-dissemination and non-publication affecting the work of ex-judge Bernard Grenier. The latter had analyzed the activities of the group Option Canada in the weeks and months preceding the referendum. He had concluded that the “No” option had incurred more than half a million dollars in illegal expenditures.
On Tuesday, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) and Québec solidaire (QS) in turn expressed their interest in seeing all the documents resulting from the investigation of the former magistrate. “I agree that we go to the bottom of the file. We have nothing to hide, ”said the Caquiste Premier, François Legault, in front of the journalists.
“Now, I asked people from the various ministries concerned to look at what we have the right to do there. You obviously have to speak with the Chief Electoral Officer. We must also look at the constraints put in place by Commissioner Grenier. But what I want is for all possible information to be made public, ”he continued.
The parliamentary leader of QS, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, underlined the importance of making public this “information […] relevant to the democratic debate in Quebec”. “I think that Quebeckers have the right to know what happened during the referendum,” he said during a press briefing.
Even the Liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) has shown itself open to “discussing this”, he who had campaigned for the “No”. “I think it’s a very worthwhile approach. It is important. This is an important debate,” said the interim leader of the PLQ, Marc Tanguay.
The PQ will table a motion this week to ask Quebec to legislate so that these documents kept secret until now be released. “We have nothing to hide,” said Mr. Tanguay on Tuesday. “Having said that, the considerations which could be raised could be of the order of ‘are there fundamental legal rights to be preserved for certain people’, and so on? We will redo the debate when the motion is read. »
Judge Grenier’s investigation was conducted behind closed doors at the time. The dozens of testimonies heard have therefore never been made public. Just like thousands of documents.