After launching two investigations in the last week into the financing cocktails of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ), the Ethics Commissioner rejects two complaints relating to government deputies, for lack of “reasonable grounds”.
The office of the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly will not study the financial requests from CAQ elected officials Yves Montigny and Gilles Bélanger. The latter were the subject of complaints from solidarity elected official Vincent Marissal since Wednesday for having issued invitations to meet a minister in exchange for a contribution of $100.
However, Commissioner Ariane Mignolet will not look into their case. “In addition to being targeted and motivated, a request for an investigation must clearly set out the “reasonable grounds” which, when analyzed objectively, allow us to believe in a breach,” explained its communications manager Anne-Sophie St-Gelais in a press release on Friday.
“The two requests for investigations in question are considered inadmissible since they do not contain reasonable grounds, based among other things on the Commissioner’s jurisprudence, to believe that a breach could have been committed against the Code,” he said. -she adds.
Claiming to be unfairly targeted by opposition groups, who “wanted to play petty politics on the backs of [sa] reputation”, MP Montigny welcomed the commissioner’s decision on Friday. “Honesty and integrity have always guided me in my work. I have always followed all the rules,” he assured in a statement published on the X network.
The complaint against Mr. Montigny concerned a text message sent to an entrepreneur so that he could participate in a fundraising cocktail with an entry cost of $100 and meet the Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne. It read: “I know we haven’t always done what you wanted, but this is a great opportunity to speak to a minister! »
Two ongoing investigations
Two other CAQ elected officials, Sylvain Lévesque and Louis-Charles Thouin, were not entitled to the same treatment as their colleagues and are currently facing investigations by the commissioner for having allowed access to a minister to be dangled in exchange for amounts of money.
In the first case, an employee of Mr. Lévesque is suspected of having used an email address of the National Assembly in order to “promote the partisan fundraising activities” of the CAQ. In the second, Mr. Thouin himself is criticized for having written to the mayors of his constituency to invite them to meet the Minister of Transport, Geneviève Guilbault, in exchange for contributions.
In both cases, the commissioner will have to determine whether the deputies placed themselves in a conflict of interest. According to his office, “apparent similarities between two situations or a transposition of facts alleged in another request cannot justify the opening of an investigation”.
Unable to accept that his “integrity” is being attacked, Prime Minister François Legault announced Thursday that the CAQ would renounce all popular funding until further notice. “A political party that receives private donations, there may be an appearance that we feel obliged to listen more to these people,” he said in a press scrum, suggesting that he could modify the Election Act to put an end to private donations. But only with the agreement of the opposition parties.
Further details will follow.