QUEBEC CITY – “Two and a half million dollars of subsidy was given to a person who has links to the Hell’s Angels, while the minister admitted in 2005 he was a cocaine addict.”
Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) MNA Jacques Duchesneau made the explosive allegation on Wednesday that former Parti Quebecois minister André Boisclair may have been pressured into giving millions in public funds to a friend.
Paul Sauvé is a businessman with alleged ties to the Hell’s Angels and a close personal friend of Boisclair.
He told the Charbonneau Commission that he received the grant to renovate St. James Church just days before the PQ lost the election.
The CAQ has obtained a copy of the letter signed by Boisclair.
Party leader François Legault said it’s extremely rare for ministers to award big subsidies when it’s obvious their government is about to fall.
“It’s very exceptional and we have to show that it’s urgent, but four days before an election, I haven’t seen that,” he noted.
The opposition wants Boisclair, Quebec’s representative in New York, to be recalled for questioning.
The CAQ wants him suspended from his job.
“What is going to be the explanation of Mr. Boisclair?” asked Liberal MNA Robert Poëti.
“He has to explain publicly what he did a few days before the election.”
On Wednesday, PQ ministers defended Boisclair.
“If UPAC wants to meet Mr. Boisclair, he will be open to meet them, no problem, we want transparency,” said Labour Minister Agnès Maltais.
The government said it would not force Boisclair to come back to Quebec.
“Mr. Boisclair, I talked to him on Monday when I was in New York,” said International Affairs Minister Jean-François Lisée.
“He said that of course he’s completely available to the Commission or to the police to answer any question; he thinks everything that was done was completely legal.”
Lisée said the Charbonneau Commission is free to call on Boisclair to testify. He rejected the idea of a separate public investigation.
This is not the first time Boisclair has landed in hot water.
READ MORE: Former PQ leader Andre Boisclair lands two well-paying government jobs
Last year, his double appointment guaranteeing him a job for life caused outrage.
The Marois government eventually stripped him of one of his posts.
Comments