‘Quebec Liberal Party has never been corrupt’: Pablo Rodriguez

“The Quebec Liberal Party has never been corrupt and will never be corrupt,” said its leader, Pablo Rodriguez, on Wednesday, in response to accusations made by his PQ rival, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon. 

But contrary to what had been suggested the day before, the PLQ will not be suing the PQ leader for defamation. 

The Liberals had asked his PQ opponent to retract, which he did not do. 

On Tuesday, Liberal MNA Marc Tanguay suggested that his party was therefore considering suing the leader of the Parti Québécois.

But on Wednesday, Rodriguez closed that door. He suggested that he did not want to “play his opponent’s game,” but that he would respond “blow for blow,” in his words.

“The combination of the Liberal Party’s fear campaign (about the risks of independence promoted by the PQ), with an abysmal lack of content, in our history almost every decade, has led us to business-oriented and corrupt Liberal governments,” argued St-Pierre Plamondon, which angered Rodriguez.

“Will Quebecers say to themselves: the Liberal Party has been corrupt throughout its history and will always be corrupt? Quebecers will say: never,” argued the leader of the PLQ in a press scrum Wednesday morning.

“I will never allow Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon to call the integrity of my team into question,” he said. 

St-Pierre Plamondon specifically mentioned scandals and controversies that had tarnished the government of Jean Charest. 

There was the “daycare scandal,” involving daycare permits granted to Liberal donors, the case of illegal straw donors in political party financing, also the Bastarache Commission, set up because of allegations of partisan appointments to the judiciary, as well as the Charbonneau Commission, on allegations of corruption and collusion in the construction sector.

But the PQ leader also referred to the scandals that have tarnished the federal government of Justin Trudeau, of which Rodriguez was a part, for example the SNC-Lavalin affair, the WE-Charity scandal, the commission on foreign interference, etc.

“I will not engage with those elements brought forward by Mr. St-Pierre Plamondon,” Rodriguez retorted. “Going down that road is stooping to his level, instead of talking about what we have to offer Quebecers.”

On Tuesday, Tanguay maintained that analyses were underway at the highest levels of the PLQ regarding a possible lawsuit.   

According to him, the PQ leader’s statements were defamatory because he was launching “false accusations” that denigrated the reputation of the PLQ.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews