The former commissioner of the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC), Robert Lafrenière, says he finds the thesis that he orchestrated the leaks of sensitive documents to advance his career “aberrant”. He maintains that the leaking of information “scraped” one of the most important files of his reign, the Mâchurer investigation into the financing of the Liberal Party of Quebec.
Posted at 2:37 p.m.
“It is absurd, disappointing. It will do, dirty my reputation! says Mr. Lafrenière indignantly, in a rare interview.
“At no time did I orchestrate any leak whatsoever to advance my personal interests”, assures the one who had been discreet since his hasty resignation in October 2018.
The former commissioner has agreed to react to new documents from the file of former Deputy Prime Minister Nathalie Normandeau, which show that the judge who ordered a halt to the legal process against the former politician and her five co-defendants had based on a thesis of the Bureau of Independent Investigations (BEI) according to which Mr. Lafrenière would have “orchestrated” a system of leaks in order to encourage Quebec to renew him in his post of commissioner and to transform the UPAC into a specialized police force.
However, several of the leaks for which the BEI blames the management of the UPAC occurred after the renewal of Mr. Lafrenière as commissioner and after the transformation of the UPAC into a police force, underlines the principal concerned. He claims that the BEI did not take this apparent incongruity into account in his thesis, and regrets that he was never asked to give his version.
” It is unacceptable. My family suffers, my friends suffer. I had a stellar reputation, and now, because I did my job, I’m being singled out,” he says.
“To be famous, I worked like crazy to prepare for the interview. I didn’t take anything for granted. There was a process that was in place, a pretty tough interview, I got through it and got the job,” he explains.
“There, it didn’t work anymore”
In April 2017, a year after the renewal of his mandate, internal documents from the Mâchurer investigation were obtained and released by Quebecor media: an organization chart, fact sheets on former Premier Jean Charest and the fundraiser Marc Bibeau, emails requesting assistance, travel records and most importantly, a written statement from a witness given to the police.
Mr. Lafrenière says this leak was different from the others.
“When Mâchurer arrived, there, it no longer worked. You just scrapped a survey! Or in any case, you have just mortgaged it not nearly. We had witnesses in there who had made statements, and I can tell you that the phone was ringing, ”he says.
“It’s an investigation that was progressing, it’s not easy these investigations, it’s long…”
The investigation was eventually closed and no one was charged. UPAC launched an internal investigation into the leaks, “Project A,” which resulted in the arrest of MP Guy Ouellette in 2017, but that investigation too collapsed and no one was charged with the leaks. anything so far.
Robert Lafrenière acknowledges that it was not ideal for UPAC to investigate the leaks at UPAC. “Ideally, it would have been outsourced,” he acknowledges today.
“We disturbed people”
The commissioner had not only made friends during his time at the head of the organization. “I was a little naive. All investigations into any deputies have been unsuccessful. It is sure that we disturbed the world, ”he observes.
And the arrest of the Deputy Prime Minister, was it justified? Does he still believe that the investigation was good? ” Absolutely. As for me, nothing has changed, ”he insists.
Making the arrest on the day the 2016 budget was tabled, a controversial decision that still follows him to this day, was perhaps a mistake, he acknowledges. “Would I do it again like that, with all the wind of schnoutte it caused? Probably I would take the risk of postponing it for a week,” he said.
With the collaboration of Daniel Renaud, The Press