Marwah Rizqy must shed light on Quebec Liberal Party fiasco, says former advisor to Pablo Rodriguez

Last week, the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ) faced one of its most turbulent periods in recent memory.

Saint-Laurent MNA Marwah Rizqy was suspended from caucus after firing her chief of staff, a move party leader Pablo Rodriguez said blindsided his team and represented a “breach of trust.”

Now Rizqy is defending her actions publicly. In a post shared Sunday night, she said she followed HR rules, maintained confidentiality, and insisted she pursued no political agenda.

But the controversy continues to grow, and key questions remain about what this means for the PLQ.

CityNews spoke to Jonathan Kalles, a former federal advisor to Rodriguez and prime minister Justin Trudeau.

What did you make of Marwah Rizqy’s post on social media?

Well, I think it’s really interesting when she posted it, more than what’s in it. She posted it a couple of minutes before Pablo Rodriguez was going on ‘Tout le monde en parle,’ which as we know is one of the most watched TV shows in Quebec. So why did she post this just minutes before? Obviously, that was planned out. It’s part of some strategy she has. I don’t know what it is. The post really didn’t say anything. She suggested that this was an HR issue alone and that she couldn’t talk about anything. So she made a post to say she wasn’t going to say anything. Clearly, there’s some other motivation behind this, but it remains to be seen what that is. It’s just unclear and I’m not sure anybody really has their finger on what she’s up to.

What do you think we can expect to see over the coming days? Is it the end? Is there more to come?

I think she’s going to try to continue to feed the story. And by not talking – and I understand, yes, an HR matter needs to be dealt with confidentially, there are legal issues – but by not talking to anybody… including she apparently has refused to connect with Pablo Rodriguez himself, so they haven’t spoken since, from what I understand, Tuesday. He said that he texted her. She hasn’t responded. So what is she aiming for? What is her actual objective? Because until she comes clean on some of this, this is going to continue to linger.

What do you think this means for the party’s stability and unity heading into the next election cycle?

Well, I think you saw Rodriguez has two previous leadership contenders who came out publicly and said that they supported him as leader. You’ve heard that from the caucus, maybe with the exception of Greg Kelley, who’s Marwah Rizqy’s husband, that they’re unified behind him. I think people would like to see this investigation done quickly and so that they can come to the public with ‘here’s what happened’ and be able to move on. Now, they won’t necessarily be able to control this story because some of the sources where this information is coming from, some of these allegations of improprieties are still out there in the ether, but no one clearly understands who’s planting it, who’s sharing it, what their motivation is and what the objectives are. So I think the party needs to get its house in order, get some very clear answers to the public very quickly. And we’re heading into the holiday season. You don’t want this lingering too long into the season. And then what you would hope for is that they’re able to have a press conference in a couple weeks, ‘here’s what happened,’ and then start the new year fresh, kind of resetting the political agenda and the political situation heading into next October’s election.

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