(Quebec) The independent member for Rimouski, Harold LeBel, who had been accused of sexual assault in December 2020, announced Thursday that he would not seek a new mandate next October. The postponement of his trial to the fall, in the middle of the election campaign, “forces” him to make this decision, explained the former PQ MP.
Updated yesterday at 5:57 p.m.
The deputy confirmed his departure from political life on Thursday in his constituency. “I was ready, with humility and confidence, to continue for another four years,” he said at a press conference in Rimouski, broadcast live on the LCN news network.
“But here, in a private file for which I am arrested, the deadlines for the administration of justice are pushing back the procedures until next fall, in the middle of the election period. I was hoping to live this moment in the spring. That was what was planned,” he added to reporters.
[Ce report] also forces me to make the decision to renounce my desire to ask the people for a third term as Member of Parliament for Rimouski in the National Assembly, a function so precious to me, so dear to me.
Harold LeBel, Independent MP for Rimouski
In an interview, the principal concerned claims to have made this decision “reluctantly” when he continued his activities as an MNA as an independent. He is also starting a tour of the towns and municipalities in his riding to meet the mayors.
“I do what I have to do and the reception from the people of Rimouski is always very favourable, very good. […] I would have liked to ask for another term and I think I had a very good chance, ”he argues. Mr. LeBel will end his mandate “with serenity”, he indicated.
According to him, holding his trial in the spring could have given him “room to maneuver” to present himself in the fall. Harold LeBel was charged with sexual assault in December 2020. The charges date back to 2017. His trial was to take place in the spring. Through the voice of his lawyers, Mr. LeBel had said that he wanted to “demonstrate that he has nothing to blame himself for” in this case.
Uncertain political future
In this sense, Mr. LeBel does not definitively close the door to political life, although the one who would be 60 years old in June wishes to devote himself to his family. “It’s been forty years since [je m’implique dans la politique] and I played all kinds of roles. Could I take on another role? Why not ? “, he evokes. He would like to continue his involvement with seniors, he says.
Harold LeBel was Parti Québécois spokesperson for seniors and caregivers and for home support until his exclusion from caucus, after his arrest on December 15, 2020. Chief Paul St-Pierre Plamondon had him excluded pending the end of the judicial process.
Thursday, he also assured that his decision has nothing to do with “a potential presumption as to the outcome of this case”. During his speech, he thanked the members of his family, his former collaborators, his “friends of the Parti Québécois” as well as “his neighbour” in the riding, the MP for Matane-Matapédia, Pascal Bérubé, “who was a colleague and accomplice more than esteemed”.
A long-time Parti Québécois activist, political employee of PQ cabinets for 20 years, Harold LeBel became MP for Rimouski under the PQ banner in 2014, after a few unsuccessful attempts in Bas-Saint-Laurent. He was easily re-elected in 2018.