The National Assembly and UPAC traded legal jabs Friday, debating parliamentary immunity and arguing over who’s fault it is the investigation into allegations surrounding sitting MNA Guy Ouellette has been suspended.
READ MORE: Guy Ouellette vs UPAC: What you need to know about Quebec’s biggest political scandal in years
The head of UPAC said it’s because the National Assembly invoked parliamentary immunity.
“The investigation has been suspended until the time a decision has been made on the definition of parliamentary immunity,” said Robert Lafrenière.
The UPAC commissioner said a meeting with other MNAs was cancelled because of this.
READ MORE: UPAC denies intimidation; says investigation will continue
Parti Quebecois MNA Pascal Bérubé said UPAC wanted to meet with him and called him on his cellphone on Monday, Jan. 8. They cancelled the meeting the next day.
Bérubé said he was not aware of any reason he could no longer meet with UPAC on Jan. 9.
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The National Assembly denies they intervened. In a statement released late Friday afternoon, the office of the National Assembly said it never asked UPAC to stop meeting with MNAs:
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“The letter the Commissioner made reference to is a correspondence between lawyers relating to the procedure for cases in progress. The Commissioner is using that correspondence between lawyers to justify cancelling meetings with MNAs, which the National Assembly never asked for. Furthermore, it didn’t know that UPAC had planned meetings with MNAs.”
READ MORE: Ex-Liberal member Guy Ouellette alleges muzzling by anti-corruption unit
Public confidence in UPAC has been shaken. It all started with a leak into an investigation involving former premier Jean Charest. That lead to the arrest of Guy Ouellette who UPAC released without charging.
This happened at the same time the government was debating a bill to increase UPAC’s independence. The chair of the committee reviewing the UPAC bill was Guy Ouellette.
The public security minister would not address media on Friday. In a press release, he said he wants to adopt that bill as soon as possible. Then a process can start to form a watchdog committee for the province’s corruption watchdog. However, with all this confusion — can public confidence be restored?
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