Quebec Liberals expel member from caucus because she is under ethics investigation

The Quebec Liberals have lost another member of their caucus, as a crisis within the party shows no signs of abating.

The Liberals announced Thursday that Montreal-area member of the legislature Sona Lakhoyan Olivier has been expelled because she is under investigation by Quebec’s ethics commissioner.

In a statement, the office of the ethics commissioner said the investigation will try to determine whether Lakhoyan Olivier used resources from her constituency office in the Liberals’ leadership race.

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Lakhoyan Olivier wrote on social media Thursday that she has always followed the rules and will co-operate fully with the ethics investigation.

Earlier this week Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez expelled his former parliamentary leader from his caucus.

He said Marwah Rizqy lacked loyalty to him and to the party when she fired her chief of stall last month without consulting him.

Lakhoyan Olivier is tied to a report two weeks ago by the Journal de Montréal that quoted text messages exchanged by unnamed senders suggesting that members could receive cash rewards for supporting Rodriguez.

Montreal radio station 98.5 FM named Lakhoyan Olivier as one of the two people behind those text messages, but she has denied that claim and has sent a legal letter to station owner Cogeco.

The Canadian Press has not verified whether the text messages were authentic.