Marc-Yvan Cote, former Quebec transport minister is seen in a frame grab from the video feed at the Charbonneau inquiry looking into corruption in the Quebec construction industry Tuesday, June 10, 2014 in Montreal.HO/The Canadian Press
A senior Quebec cabinet minister is facing an ethics probe and leaving his post temporarily, placing the Liberal government of Philippe Couillard on the defensive as it tries to distance itself from the corruption scandals of the party's past.
The investigation was launched after disclosures about the relationship between Sam Hamad, the Treasury Board president, and disgraced Liberal organizer Marc-Yvan Côté, who was arrested last month on charges of corruption, bribery, fraud and conspiracy.
The Radio-Canada investigative show Enquête released e-mails last week suggesting that Mr. Hamad, when he was economic development minister under then-premier Jean Charest, pressed the government on a funding request for Mr. Côté, a friend who was a board member of a company seeking provincial money.
After initially staying silent about the case, the Premier on Saturday said Mr. Hamad would step aside from his cabinet post while the ethics commissioner, Jacques Saint-Laurent, investigates. But Mr. Couillard also stood by Mr. Hamad, who remains in caucus, comparing his departure to that of a minister going on sick leave.
"I have total trust in his integrity, in his capacity to serve Quebec as he has done before and will, I think, very well in the future," Mr. Couillard said.
The case is becoming a source of controversy for the Premier, who has tried to put his government at arm's length from the ethical lapses of his Liberal predecessors. The party was shaken after the arrest last month of former Liberal deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau by the province's anti-corruption unit. Mr. Couillard said recently the Liberals under his leadership were "exemplary" when it comes to political financing.
The new disclosures have surfaced as the Couillard government struggles to regain its footing after a series of political stumbles in recent months. Opposition parties, pouncing on the Radio-Canada revelations, say they point to influence-peddling and indicate the Liberal Party has failed to renew itself after the scandals of the past.
The show's report suggested that Mr. Côté had privileged access to Mr. Hamad, even though Mr. Côté was not a registered lobbyist, and that the company was receiving inside information about internal government discussions. The show suggests the exchange of e-mails went on until 2012.
"Mr. Couillard promised a 2.0 version of the Quebec Liberal Party, a return to a certain virginity for the party," MNA François Bonnardel of the opposition Coalition Avenir Québec said in an interview on Sunday. "But everything demonstrates that we're still swimming in a culture of dirty money."
He faulted Mr. Couillard for doing nothing for two days after the revelations about Mr. Hamad, then making light of them. "He's taking Quebeckers for idiots," he said.
Mr. Hamad said the media report unfairly tarnished his integrity, insisting that all he was doing was supporting a Quebec company to create jobs. "These events lead me to question the place for the presumption of innocence in the public sphere," he said in a statement.
The arrests of Ms. Normandeau and Mr. Côté – combined with the revelations of ingrained rot exposed during the provincial Charbonneau commission into corruption in the construction industry – appear to have had an impact on public opinion. As the Liberals hit the two-year anniversary of their election this week, polling shows the party ahead of the opposition Parti Québécois and CAQ but slipping in support. However, an overwhelming 72 per cent of respondents in the Léger poll last month believed the corruption arrests were not isolated incidents, and 78 per cent expected more politicians to be picked up on fraud or corruption charges.