Posted at 2:44 p.m.
Yoke and Lier projects
2011 – 2016
Project Yoke looked into illegal political fundraising schemes of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) and Parti Québécois (PQ). The investigators took a close interest in the engineering firm Roche (today Norda Stelo), which would have set up a scheme of occult contributions in exchange for public contracts.
As for the Lierre Project, it specifically concerned the financing of the firm Roche in the PLQ. The Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) was particularly interested in the 11 million subsidy granted to the City of Boisbriand so that the firm Infrabec of Lino Zambito and Roche builds a new water treatment plant.
A total of seven people have been charged with corruption, conspiracy, breach of trust and fraud against the government. Among them, former Deputy Prime Minister Nathalie Normandeau and former Liberal minister, political organizer and former vice-president at Roche Marc-Yvan Côté.
In 2017, Ernest Murray, former political attaché to PQ Premier Pauline Marois, pleaded guilty to “advising another person to commit a criminal offence”. He obtained a discharge and a stay of the judicial process on the four other counts which weighed against him in exchange for a probation of six months.
The other defendants benefited from a stay of the judicial process in 2020 for violation of their right to a trial within a reasonable time, under the Jordan judgment.
Project Chew
2014 -2022
This investigation, abandoned in February, looked at the electoral financing of the Liberal Party of Quebec, more particularly the famous “sectoral” financing from 2001 to 2012.
According to the final report of the Charbonneau commission, this scheme consisted of targeting employees of engineering and construction firms to obtain political financing. Because corporate donations were restricted by law, corporations camouflaged their contributions by using nominees.
The firms thus hoped to remain in the good graces of Quebec and continue to obtain contracts.
In the end, UPAC did not lay any charges. The investigation took a close look at former Prime Minister Jean Charest (now a candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada) and former Party fundraiser Marc Bibeau.
Accuracy Project
2010 – 2019
He was looking into allegations of corruption at the Société immobilière du Québec, responsible for managing government real estate (now the Société québécoise des infrastructures).
Radio-Canada had uncovered this operation in 2017. It targeted the former CEO of the Society Marc-André Fortier and three fundraisers from the Liberal Party of Quebec: William Bartlet, Franco Fava and Charles Rondeau.
According to the show Investigationthey would have shared 2 million on the sidelines of the extension of certain government leases.
Police investigations
Project A
June 2017 – October 2018
The Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) itself launched this investigation into information leaks concerning its own operations, including the Joug, Lierre, Mâchurer and Accuracy projects.
Former Commissioner Robert Lafrenière launched it in June 2017, after an administrative investigation failed to identify those responsible for the leaks to the media.
First launched on the track of MP Guy Ouellette and two simple police officers, the investigators will finally suspect their former ex-big bosses themselves: the former commissioner Robert Lafrenière and the ex-director of operations André Boulanger.
In October 2018, Mr. Lafrenière resigned, then the Ministry of Public Security entrusted the investigation of the leaks and Project A to the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI), the police force.
Project Oath
Since October 2018
The Office of Independent Investigations takes over. Investigators are focusing their energy on UPAC’s own staff.
In January 2019, the Bureau informed the Ministère de la Sécurité publique of criminal allegations against former director of operations André Boulanger, his spouse, Lieutenant Caroline Grenier-Lafontaine and Lieutenant Vincent Rodrigue.
The investigation is still ongoing and there is nothing to say if the BEI theory is still the same.