Feud erupts between Liberal house leader and Pierre Karl Péladeau

QUEBEC CITY – Liberal House Leader Jean-Marc Fournier is accusing Pierre Karl Péladeau of trying to muzzle the National Assembly’s legal advisor.

Claude Bisson concluded last week the St-Jérôme MNA and PQ leadership frontrunner will have to place his Quebecor shares in a blind trust, with full power going to the trustee, should he become minister.

“This is for Mr. Péladeau an answer that is no good. He doesn’t want that, he doesn’t want to apply the law, so what is he doing? He is attacking an institution,” Fournier said.

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Péladeau invited Bisson to reflect on his own neutrality; his son Alain Bisson was fired from Quebecor in 2010.

“What we see from the PQ under Mr. Péladeau is that they will have no respect for our institutions and if ever someone has not the same point of view as them, well, they’ll be intimidated until they shut up. That is the new rule of the PQ under Mr. Péladeau,” predicted Fournier.

READ MORE: Peladeau dismisses conflict-of-interest claims

One of Péladeau’s most loyal supporters said Fournier was acting like a clown.

“The way he reacted with Mr. Péladeau is not good at all, it’s not respectful,” said PQ MNA Pascal Bérubé.

Péladeau also got a little help from his friends…at Quebecor. The media and cable company produced a statement defending Péladeau’s record as CEO.

“It shows the problem of conflict of interest between Pierre Karl Péladeau the politician and Pierre Karl Péladeau the main owner of Quebecor,” said Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ) leader François Legault.

Péladeau, who is now being coached by crisis management expert Steve Flanagan, stayed stoic on Tuesday.

“This question doesn’t belong to me, you should ask Quebecor why they released and what was the content of the press release,” he told reporters.

A parliamentary committee is expected to review Péladeau’s double-role later this Fall.