Fréchette confirms that government called UPAC after a Liberal MNA revealed a confidential document.
QUEBEC — Premier Christine Fréchette was on the defensive Thursday as she attempted to dismiss accusations of political meddling in an attempt to hunt down whistleblowers.
A Radio-Canada story published Thursday reported that, when Fréchette was economy minister, her ministry asked anticorruption police (UPAC) to investigate after Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji revealed figures relating to the capacity of Quebec’s energy grid.
As a result of the investigation, civil servant Olivier Smith-Lauzon’s laptop was seized, the report said. While UPAC found no evidence that Smith-Lauzon was involved in the leak, the story says private investigators hired by the ministry searched his computer and found that he was sharing information with a Radio-Canada reporter.
Smith-Lauzon then lost his job.
Fréchette’s government confirms that the deputy economy minister tipped off UPAC following an information leak. It also confirms that an employee was fired following an “administrative inquiry” separate from the UPAC investigation.
Derraji told reporters Thursday morning that he learned about the UPAC investigation in December directly from Fréchette.
“I was informed that UPAC was launching an investigation into the document I had and the information I had,” Derraji said.
The Liberal MNA had shown reporters the document in an attempt to demonstrate that the government had promised too many...
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