Gallant Commission: Declared conflicts of interest will not be made public

The Gallant Commission, charged with investigating the SAAQclic fiasco, will not disclose its members’ conflicts of interest to the general public.

The rules governing the commission’s work were published on Monday. They require members (lawyers, investigators, etc.) who have had ties to individuals under investigation to declare them “without delay.”

It is Commissioner Denis Gallant — himself accused of having a conflict of interest — who will decide whether it is necessary for the member in question to sign a “conflict of interest declaration.”

This register of conflicts of interest will not be made public, commission spokesperson Joanne Marceau told The Canadian Press.

In recent days, pressure has been mounting on Commissioner Gallant to recuse himself due to his ties with the President of the Treasury Board, Sonia LeBel. 

Both were prosecutors at the Charbonneau Commission from 2011 to 2014. 

LeBel has since had dinner with Gallant and other former colleagues on the commission. She also attended her presentation ceremony as a municipal court judge on Feb. 19.

The opposition parties in the National Assembly have all compared the situation to a “family party,” denouncing the bonds of friendship emerging between the Gallant commission and the government.

For example, the commission’s director of investigations, Robert Pigeon, is said to know LeBel’s partner, a former Sûreté du Québec agent, well, Le Journal de Québec revealed last week.

The commission’s secretary general, Véronyck Fontaine, is also said to have worked closely with the former CEO of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), Denis Marsolais, until very recently.

The signatories of the “conflict of interest declaration” undertake not to participate in meetings with people they know, and not to read any documents concerning them.

They will not be able to be present when there are discussions about these targeted persons.

Already on April 1st, under fire from critics, Commissioner Gallant had committed to limiting his exchanges with witnesses he knows, Marceau recalled on Monday.

“If I know a witness personally, I will not be able to meet them beforehand or consult any documents concerning them,” Gallant said in a press release.

“The examination of his testimony will be done in public, and I will only learn what he says when he addresses the commission in public,” he added.

Gallant plans to deliver an opening statement on April 24.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews