MONTREAL – It’s one hot potato after the other for Quebec’s Education Minister.
Line Beauchamp is the latest member of the Charest’s cabinet to be targeted for allegedly accepting questionable donations.
Tony Tomassi, Jacques Dupuis and Nathalie Normandeau have also been involved in alleged ethical conflicts.
Opposition parties say Domenico Arcuri, an alleged mafioso, donated thousands of dollars to the Liberal party in 2009 and obtained new work permits from Line Beauchamp’s department that same year. Beauchamp was Quebec’s Environment Minister at the time.
“Madame Beauchamp was part of a political event with a person well known as part of mafia,” says Bertrand St-Arnaud, a member of the Parti Québécois.
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St-Arnaud says it’s hard to believe she didn’t know who she was dealing with.
“Especially when we know that one of her political attaches was Mr. Deguire, a former policeman for 30 years in Montreal.”
Line Beauchamp’s response is that the Environment Department issues more than 8-thousand permits a year and the minister is never directly involved.
At the National Assembly in Quebec, Beauchamp’s colleagues rose to her defense by pointing out that the Parti Québécois had also received donations from Arcuri in 2004 and 2005.
However donations to the Liberal party were larger… and Sylvie Roy from the CAQ believes it was all part of a ‘pay-to-play’ Liberal scheme.
“They refuse to sit down with a student leader but they have breakfast with a mafioso … where is the logic in that?” she asked.
Line Beauchamp has vowed to be more careful who she associates with in the future, but Parti Québécois leader Pauline Marois believes the damage is done: Beauchamp’s integrity has taken a hit.
“I think now she doesn’t have the credibility to continue to have discussions with the students,” she said.
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