Quebec anti-corruption unit investigates re-elected MNA

The day after the Quebec election, premier-designate Philippe Couillard promised he wouldnt make any compromises on integrity.

If there are proven facts, serious things, they will certainly be verified prior to appointment. We need to demonstrate and practice the greatest possible amount of control and transparency, Couillard declared.

Now thats being put to the test.

Radio-Canadas team of investigative journalists on the Enqute program obtained a documentthat suggests at least three investigations are ongoing into people who were at one point involved with the Liberal Party of Quebec under Jean Charest including a LiberalMNA who was just re-elected in last weeks provincial election. Radio-Canada has not revealed the name of the sitting MNA.

In addition to UPACs already-known Project Lierre and Project Joug investigations, there is Project Justesse. Quebecs anti-corruption unit is looking into suspicions of:

• Breach of trust.
• Corruption.
• Fraud.
• Illegal transactions.
• Illegal financing of the Liberal Party.

UPAC documents reveal other MNAs

Other documents made public today show that UPAC investigators were looking for information specifically related to former Liberal MNA Nathalie Normandeau when it secretly raided Liberal Party headquarters last July.

That search was kept secret from the media for two months.

• NathalieNormandeaufundraiser was subject ofUPACsearch
• Former Quebec deputy premier denies role in dodgy donations
• Quebec Liberal headquarters raided by anti-corruption unit

The now-public documents in question related to Normandeaus involvement in the awarding of a provincial subsidy to Roche, a Quebec engineering firm, for a water treatment plant project in Boisbriand, Que.

Normandeau, who was municipal affairs minister at the time, overruled senior bureaucrats to award the $11-million contract to engineering firm Roche.

Roche also fundraised for Normandeau during her time as an MNA and Liberal candidate. Roche's Quebec City headquarters wereraided by UPAC investigators in January.

Normandeau was also linked to a straw man, or prte-nom, scheme in which people donated money that wasn't their own to the Liberal Party. Five people who attended a 2008 fundraiser for Normandeau and donated money were fined in October 2013.

Normandeau responded late Wednesday in a statement, saying that she always acted with integrity, rigour and honesty while serving as an MNA.

Other former Liberal MNAs, Marc-Yvan Ct et Violette Trpanier, have been named in UPAC documents as well.

The Liberals, for their part, did not comment extensively but did say the party wanted the truth without compromise and that it would continue collaborating with authorities.

No MNA or party member has been charged in connection with these allegations.