Élections Québec will investigate donations to the CAQ

Élections Québec will investigate two $100 donations made by a couple who wanted to meet Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault at a fundraising cocktail party.

The controversy surrounding the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) surfaced when Antoine Bittar and Élizabeth Rivera told a parliamentary commission earlier this month that they each had to donate $100 to the party to meet Guilbault.

The couple has been trying to get the permitted blood alcohol level to drive lowered from 0.08 to 0.05 (50 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood) since the loss of their daughter in 2017, who was killed by a drunk driver.

They have since been reimbursed by the CAQ.

“Public information leads us to believe that both contributions would have been made in exchange for consideration, thus rendering these contributions non-compliant,” Elections Québec spokesperson Julie St-Arnaud-Drolet wrote in an email to The Canadian Press on Monday.

Under the Election Act, any citizen may contribute up to $100 a year to a political party, but there is no quid pro quo.

The CAQ has been under scrutiny for several weeks due to controversies over its fundraising methods.

“[Élections Québec] has every right to investigate and make additional verifications on all donations. […] We won’t be contacted unless we need to be a witness,” CAQ Executive Director Brigitte Legault told The Canadian Press.

Two CAQ MNAs, Sylvain Lévesque and Louis-Charles Thouin, are subject to an investigation by the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly.

This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews.