‘Absolutely nothing to hide’: With Quebec Liberals embroiled in crisis, Rodriguez calls for external investigation into his own leadership
Posted November 19, 2025 9:57 am.
Last Updated November 19, 2025 8:31 pm.
The crisis within the Quebec Liberal Party is deepening: Leader Pablo Rodriguez is calling for an independent, external investigation following “serious” allegations related to his leadership bid.
Québecor’s investigative bureau obtained text messages suggesting that members who supported Rodriguez during the leadership race received cash rewards.
Rodriguez says he asked the president of the Quebec Liberal Party, Rafael Primeau-Ferraro, who stood beside Rodriguez at a press conference Wednesday afternoon, “to mandate an external and completely independent firm to conduct a full investigation, analyze all the facts, and clearly establish the necessary conclusions.”
“We have nothing, absolutely nothing, to hide,” Rodriguez told reporters. “You are here at the Liberal Party of Quebec. These aren’t just employees; these are volunteers, these are activists who, across generations, have built and shaped the Quebec of today. And at no point will I allow the integrity of my party to be questioned or compromised.”
Primeau-Ferraro says he has “no reason to doubt” the integrity of the Liberal leadership race, nor the result.
“Our process was extremely robust. We had a great team that managed the whole race from the start of the race, and a firm, highly competent who supported the whole voting process,” the party president said. “So as far as I’m concerned, and what I’ve known about this race and read about this race, it was a race that was well coordinated and organized.”
On Wednesday morning, 98.5 FM reported that the two people behind the text messages are Liberal MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier and CAQ MNA Alice Abou-Khalil. The two MNAs quickly denied the allegations.
“I want to be clear: I have absolutely nothing to do with this story. The text messages revealed in the Journal de Montréal article did not come from me. I am not the person involved in this exchange,” Abou-Khalil wrote on Facebook.
The CAQ party indicated that it had no reason not to believe Abou-Khalil’s version of events. She therefore remains in the caucus.
“I categorically deny being the person involved in these exchanges, which may have been falsified in whole or in part and whose authenticity has never been demonstrated by any independent source,” Lakhoyan Olivier stated on the social network X.
“You have text messages attributed to certain people, each of these two people, elected officials from two different parties, claim they refuse to accept this and even threaten legal action,” Rodriguez said. “What’s true, what came from them, I have no idea. But we must be very careful when attacking the integrity of individuals, especially when there’s nothing to attribute to anyone, no proof to support it.”
The Quebec Liberal Party leader says the accusations are personal and have consequences.
“Imagine what we’re doing today, attacking the reputations of people and a political party. We’re taking text messages that aren’t connected to anything. There’s no phone number. No one confirms them. The people whose names are being linked to this are denying it. Two members from different parties are saying, ‘It wasn’t me. We’ll take legal recourse if you say it was me.’ How many times are we going to do this? Every day? Tomorrow morning, if another MNA, or two more, are implicated, are we going to attack their lives too?
“You know, my daughter read this at midnight yesterday, she didn’t slept a wink all night. Because she says, ‘Dad, you’ve been in politics for 20-odd years, and nobody’s ever attacked you. And now they’re saying you did something wrong.’ There are consequences to this. And I’m talking to the authors of those articles: name names. Name them, have the courage to do it. Stop using anonymous accusations and blaming everyone. Because there are serious consequences.”
A political analyst indeed told CityNews the allegations, even if disputed, could have lasting impacts and shake voter confidence.
“It was already a very difficult time for the Quebec Liberal Party to think that they are in a rebuilding mode,” said Karim Boulos. “They’re at almost an all-time low in terms of seats of the National Assembly. They were hopeful. The new leader came, a new vision to spark interest and get the masses excited about a potential Liberal government. This has been a huge setback.
“And regardless of what the external investigation uncovers, just the allegations are enough to make people question, ‘is this really how we want a potential premier and a potential four-year term to look like? Are there people within his surroundings, are there people in his inner circle that may not be trustworthy?’ It’s going to raise all those questions.”
‘Breach of trust’
This all comes a day after Rodriguez removed MNA Marwah Rizqy from her position as parliamentary leader and suspended her from the Liberal caucus, citing a “breach of trust.”
The reason: Rizqy dismissed her chief of staff, Geneviève Hinse, a close associate of Rodriguez’s, without consulting him beforehand.
Rodriguez said he had “no idea” why Hinse was dismissed.
In a brief message sent to Liberal members of the National Assembly Monday evening, Rizqy stated that Hinse was “no longer employed by the cabinet” and was being replaced immediately by the director of operations, Isabelle Lord.
Not having been elected, Rodriguez had entrusted Rizqy with the mandate to serve as leader of the official opposition until the 2026 general election.
Rizqy endorsed Rodriguez in the leadership race.
Federal Liberals support Rodriguez
The crisis within the Quebec Liberal Party reached Ottawa on Wednesday, where former colleagues of Rodriguez expressed their support for him.
“Pablo was not only my colleague, he was also my friend. I think he’s the right person to manage crises,” said Stéphane Lauzon, the Liberal MP for Argenteuil—La Petite-Nation, during a press scrum.
“Obviously, Pablo is a great friend. I support him,” added Sophie Chatel, the MP for Pontiac—Kitigan Zibi.
For his part, Jean-Yves Duclos, the MP for Québec Centre, acknowledged the case raises several questions.
“I think many people have questions about the situation, and obviously, I’m one of them, but we’ll see what the details are,” he said, offering no further comment.
–With files from La Presse Canadienne
