The Parti Québécois is taking aim at the Charest government in its handling of the biggest financial fraud in Canadian history after a jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict this week in a trial involving five former Norbourg employees.
Justice has not been rendered, PQ Leader Pauline Marois said. She blamed the government for making serious mistakes in the administration of justice against those who defrauded 9,200 investors out of $130-million.
The five co-accused, Serge Beugre, Jean Cholette, Felicien Souka, Rémi Deschambault and Jean Renaud, faced more than 700 charges of fraud, conspiracy and falsifying documents. After a four-month trial, the jury concluded that the case was too complex to reach a unanimous verdict.
The Norbourg financial scandal was the making of financial investment adviser Vincent Lacroix, who was sentenced to 13 years in jail after pleading guilty to 200 fraud-related charges Ms. Marois accused Justice Minister Kathleen Weil of creating a "fiasco" by failing to give clear directives to the prosecutors that could have reduced the number of charges against the five defendants and made it easier for the jury to reach a verdict.
"The Minister washed her hands of the matter, saying that there was nothing wrong with the justice system. If she talked to those who lost all their savings and retirement funds, perhaps she would have another point of view," Ms. Marois said at the conclusion of a two-day caucus meeting. "We are now before an untenable situation where people have lost confidence in the justice system. ... The situation is ridiculous."
The public is growing impatient with the Charest government's indifference and its unethical practices, Ms. Marois argued as she listed a number of issues that will be at the centre of the Official Opposition attacks when the National Assembly reconvenes on Feb. 9.
For instance, the PQ leader called on Mr. Charest to expel from caucus Liberal member Jean D'Amour after the lobbyist commissioner tabled a report last week signalling that senior managers at BPR engineering firm may have broke the law by failing to register as lobbyists in promoting a number of municipal projects. Mr. D'Amour was a senior member of the BPR staff and the focus of the lobbying commissioner's investigation.
The one-year statute of limitations on prosecutions in the province's Lobbying Act makes it even more urgent for the government to act quickly and to stop dragging its feet, Ms Marois insisted. If charges are to be laid, "we want the Minister to act promptly," the PQ Leader said.
She also called for the resignation of another Liberal backbencher David Whissell who according to the PQ behaved unethically after intervening in the affairs of a paving company which he partly owns and had placed in a blind trust.
Mr. Whissell resigned as Labour minister in September amid allegations of favouritism involving his paving company, ABC Rive-Nord Inc., which had received government contracts creating the appearance of a conflict of interest.
La Presse reported Thursday that, in December, Mr. Whissell was involved in an acrimonious negotiation to buy out his partners in the company, which, Ms. Marois charged, breached the code of ethics for members of the National Assembly.
"For someone who is supposed to have a blind trust and was now negotiating his return to the company ... that too seems to be part of the vaudeville," Ms. Marois said in calling for Mr. Whissell's resignation as a Liberal MNA.
The Whissell incident reflected the serious ethical problems facing the Liberal government, according to the PQ Leader, who reiterated the need for a full public inquiry into the alleged corruption and bid rigging in the province's construction industry.
The PQ urged citizens to sign the online petition that was launched in December on the National Assembly website, which has so far attracted more than 30,000 signatures, calling for a public inquiry into the construction industry. Premier Jean Charest has refused to bow to growing public pressure for an inquiry, claiming the police investigation into alleged corruption in the industry is sufficient.
In the fall, however, the police and Crown prosecutors joined the growing ranks of those who contend that only a public inquiry could shed light on potential corruption in the attribution of government contracts.