The Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) is “responsible” for a “serious situation of mismanagement,” concluded the Québec Ombudsman, after conducting three parallel investigations in the process. of the Louis Robert affair.
In his annual activity report, tabled Thursday morning in the National Assembly, the Quebec Ombudsman emphasizes that he does not generally name the organizations implicated by his public integrity investigations, but that for a rare times, “he lifts the veil”.
The investigations stem from a crisis that occurred at the Grain Research Center (CÉROM), a non-profit corporation mainly funded by MAPAQ.
“Having been informed for a long time of the irregularities at CÉROM, MAPAQ was slow to act to resolve the situation, with full knowledge of the facts,” we can read in the report signed by the Public Protector, Marc-André Dowd.
Provincial civil servant for 32 years, agronomist Louis Robert was fired in 2019 for denouncing private sector interference in public research on pesticides at CÉROM, first to MAPAQ, then by sending a ministerial note to a Radio-Canada journalist.
The confidential document alleged that CÉROM researchers had suffered attempts to intimidate members of the board of directors and its president, Christian Overbeek, “in the dissemination and interpretation of the results of research projects”.
At the heart of the controversy: a study conducted by CÉROM researchers which revealed that the use of neonicotinoids – these famous “bee-killing” insecticides – is useless in more than 95% of corn and soybean fields in Quebec.
Reports from 2011
The report from the Québec Ombudsman reveals that MAPAQ and the organization’s board of directors (on which representatives of the ministry sat) were made aware of the “problems” experienced at CÉROM in 2011, five years before the report. of the whistleblower Louis Robert.
“Between 2011 and 2017, CÉROM staff members regularly made reports, and gradually in an increasingly marked manner,” writes the Québec Ombudsman.
In addition to MAPAQ, it implicates two people who are not named in the report.
He notably criticizes a “serious breach” of ethical and professional standards against a member of the CÉROM board of directors who also held positions within the agricultural union of Producteurs de grains du Québec.
“The situation of the accused gave him the power to influence the research subjects. However, he exceeded the limits of this power by directly addressing MAPAQ to have an impact on certain research subjects,” writes the Public Protector.
By publicly discrediting CÉROM’s research on neonics, the accused brought the organization and its researchers into disrepute, affecting public confidence in this entity financed mainly by MAPAQ and therefore by public funds.
Extract from the Public Protector’s report
The second person — who no longer assumes any responsibility within CÉROM — produced unjustified financial claims to MAPAQ for research projects carried out between 2012 and 2018.
“The amounts claimed were not entirely used for the targeted research projects, but for other purposes at CÉROM […] Although the funds remained within the CÉROM, the number of errors in the financial claims concerning the research projects demonstrates the intention of the person in question to extract undue funding from the MAPAQ,” concludes the report.
“MAPAQ had an important role to play in terms of monitoring and verification, which it did not carry out properly,” the report adds.
Fourth investigation
This is the second report published by the Public Protector in the wake of the Louis Robert affair. The first — made public in June 2019 by Mr. Dowd’s predecessor, Marie Rinfret — was just as damning.
She judged that Louis Robert’s denunciation had been managed in such a deficient manner by the Quebec Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) that his case risked discouraging other whistleblowers.
There Act to facilitate the disclosure of wrongdoing regarding public bodiessupposed to protect whistleblowers from reprisals, had not been respected, she concluded.
This law is a legacy of the Charbonneau Commission. In interview with The Press On Thursday, the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia Lebel, affirmed that she will table a bill this fall to better protect public service whistleblowers.