Yan Plante, a former employee with the Coalition Avenir Quebec (CAQ), has quit his job in the premier’s office following allegations he stole confidential financial documents and gave them to the Quebec Liberal government.
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“Over the last few days, false allegations about me have been circulated by my former employer, the CAQ,” Plante wrote in a statement.
“I have decided to quit my job in order to concentrate all my energy to defending my reputation and my integrity.”
The CAQ refused to divulge how many financial and strategic party documents were allegedly stolen, but said some of them pertain to the upcoming byelection in Saint-Jérôme.
Plante left the party at the end of July and began working for the premier’s office in August. The CAQ has also suggested that the premier’s chief of staff, Jean-Louis Dufresne, was involved.
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“We ask Mr. Plante and Mr. Dufresne to give us a statement saying what they did with the documents, who got the documents,” said Simon Jolin-Barrette, CAQ justice critic Wednesday.
Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard shot back, saying it was a smear campaign against the government.
“People who believe both in Quebec and Canada do not feel welcome at the CAQ. It’s been said many times and that’s the reason this is happening,” said Couillard.
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“He’s trying to put up some smoke screens around. I want to be very clear: Mr. Plante was hired for his competence, his experience also in Quebec, in the economic sector in Quebec, particularly.”
“He has absolutely transferred no information from the CAQ to us and by the way I’m not interested in any of the CAQ’s information.”
Plante said he plans to hire a lawyer.
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