Following the recent setbacks of the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC), the opposition demands to hear its big boss, Frédérick Gaudreau, in parliamentary committee.
The Canadian Press obtained a letter sent by the Parti Québécois (PQ) making this official request to the Committee on Institutions.
PQ elected officials say they want to shed light on the “unsatisfactory results” of UPAC in the abortive trial of former Terrebonne mayor Jean-Marc Robitaille.
They also ask to hear the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, the Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, as well as the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP).
The parliamentary committee will therefore soon have to consider this request.
As the elected CAQ members are in the majority, it will be they who will decide whether or not they will accept the mandate.
Thursday, the debates quickly escalated in the House concerning the disappointments of UPAC.
Flayed number two
Liberal spokesperson Marc Tanguay stressed that the number two of the organization, Sylvain Baillargeon, was skinned by the Court of Quebec in the stay of proceedings against the former mayor of Terrebonne.
The judge reproached him for his “evasive and contradictory answers, his lack of sincerity, his lack of transparency”, and noted that “the credibility of this witness is irreparably tarnished”.
Mr. Tanguay recalled that it was the Caquista government that appointed Mr. Baillargeon.
Called on several times to renew her confidence in senior management, the Minister of Public Security, Geneviève Guilbault, limited herself to indicating that she had confidence in the organization.