"I have trouble finding which standard exactly was transgressed and by whom. Among the evidence, there is not a lot that came out toward that end."
A Quebec Superior Court judge heard closing arguments Wednesday in former Quebec premier Jean Charest’s lawsuit against the province’s attorney general. Charest is seeking $2 million over how information from a UPAC investigation was leaked to the media.
Michel Déom, a lawyer representing the attorney general, argued before Justice Gregory Moore in the civil trial at the Montreal courthouse that began earlier this week. The former Quebec Liberal Party leader has been attending the proceedings in person this week.
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“They are tossing out bits and pieces in an effort to convince you that a standard has been broken,” Déom told the judge. “But I have trouble finding which standard exactly was transgressed and by whom. Among the evidence, there is not a lot that came out toward that end.”
Charest filed the lawsuit in October 2020, originally seeking $1 million for the leaks that came out of the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) investigation that began in 2014 and ultimately produced no criminal charges against anyone targeted in it. The anticorruption squad probed how the Liberal party conducted its fundraising while Charest was premier. The probe was based on allegations that originally surfaced during the Charbonneau Commission.
In February, UPAC announced it had closed the investigation.
Some people who testified during the Charbonneau Commission alleged that Charest’s friend, Marc Bibeau, offered the heads of construction and engineering firms favourable treatment on bids for government contracts if they donated generously to the party.
Déom argued that much of what was reported on came out of the Charbonneau Commission and that a specific article published by the Journal de Montréal, which is central to Charest’s lawsuit, did not reveal much about his private life.
The Journal de Montréal article in question, published in April 2017, contained specific details about what information UPAC investigators sought pertaining to Charest and Bibeau. That included how investigators asked the Canada Border Services Agency for details on how many times the two men crossed the Canadian border and for details on Charest’s passport. The article also mentioned how UPAC tried, in 2016, to obtain warrants to listen in on Charest and Bibeau’s conversations.
On May 4, 2017, Robert Lafrenière, head of UPAC at the time, was called to testify before a committee at the National Assembly and he conceded the leaks came from the anticorruption squad.
On Tuesday, Charest’s lawyer, Jacques Jeansonne, argued the attorney general was relentless in the investigation dubbed Operation Mâchurer and acted in bad faith. The attorney also told the judge Charest and his family have suffered from what was leaked.
pcherry@postmedia.com
