(Quebec) CAQ MP Sylvain Lévesque violated the code of ethics of the National Assembly by attempting to deceive Commissioner Ariane Mignolet who was investigating him. François Legault’s party is also under fire over the use of its electoral data bank called “Coaliste”.
Posted at 10:46 a.m.
Updated at 3:23 p.m.
In his investigation report tabled in the House on Wednesday, Mr.e Mignolet recommends that the National Assembly adopt a “reprimand” against MP Sylvain Lévesque – a rare sanction. The vote will take place on Thursday.
Sylvain Lévesque resigned from his position as vice-president of the National Assembly as soon as the Ethics Commissioner’s report was tabled. Prime Minister François Legault simply said that the fate of the member for Chauveau (in Quebec) will be discussed at the meeting of the CAQ caucus on Wednesday evening.
Remember that in November 2020, Pierre Fitzgibbon, then Minister of the Economy, was unanimously reprimanded by the National Assembly following a recommendation from the Ethics Commissioner, a symbolic reprimand that the Legault government had therefore pressed.
M’s investigatione Mignolet on Sylvain Lévesque was triggered in January, following a request made by Québec solidaire MP Vincent Marissal. We then learned that an employee of Mr. Lévesque’s office had invited a citizen, who requested the MP’s help, to participate in a CAQ fundraising cocktail at a cost of $100 to meet the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard , in order to advance his case. The facts date back to the winter and spring of 2023.
According to the report, the MP “knowingly” communicated “inaccurate information” during the investigation in response to a request from the commissioner who aimed to understand the context surrounding the sending of the partisan invitation to the citizen.
What is this inaccurate information? Sylvain Lévesque told the commissioner that he had sent a text that the citizen had written about her grievances to Minister Girard’s office in the winter of 2023. In reality, he had never sent it, contrary to the promise he had made to the citizen at the time.
Dans des documents du bureau du député obtenus par la commissaire, on apprend même que le dossier de la citoyenne avait été « fermé », qu’aucune action de la part du député n’avait été jugée nécessaire et qu’on ne voulait pas qu’on « achale le cabinet des Finances avec » le texte de la citoyenne.
D’autre part, la commissaire révèle que peu de temps après le déclenchement de l’enquête, Sylvain Lévesque a utilisé une adresse courriel personnelle pour transmettre le texte de la citoyenne au cabinet du ministre Girard. Il a ensuite supprimé le courriel, ce qui le soustrayait à la preuve recueillie par la commissaire.
« Le Député a tenté de tromper et entraver le Commissaire dans l’exercice de ses fonctions », conclut la commissaire. Sylvain Lévesque a ainsi violé l’article 41 du code d’éthique.
Le député a soutenu devant la commissaire qu’il a communiqué des informations qu’il savait inexactes en raison du « grand malaise » qu’il éprouvait quant à la façon dont le dossier de la citoyenne avait été traité. « Il a ainsi transmis des informations erronées, dit-il, pour éviter que la qualité de son travail ne soit jugée négativement », écrit la commissaire.
Si Sylvain Lévesque a « exprimé ses regrets », il « banalise toujours les répercussions de sa conduite ». « Il ne semble pas réaliser qu’elle a non seulement nui à l’enquête, mais qu’elle a aussi – et surtout – eu pour effet de déconsidérer l’institution du Commissaire. En effet, malgré ses excuses ciblées, le Député n’a reconnu ses erreurs que partiellement ». Sa conduite « a pour effet de miner significativement la confiance du public envers l’Assemblée nationale et, plus largement, envers les institutions démocratiques ».
Le député doit être sanctionné selon elle, « compte tenu de la gravité des manquements, de l’expérience parlementaire du Député et de son devoir d’exemplarité accru en raison de sa fonction de vice-président de l’Assemblée nationale ». Elle recommande à l’Assemblée nationale d’adopter une réprimande contre Sylvain Lévesque.
Quant à l’invitation faite par le bureau du député pour le cocktail de financement de la CAQ, la commissaire considère que M. Lévesque n’a pas violé le code d’éthique. Certes, « la preuve recueillie révèle une utilisation suffisamment significative des ressources de l’État par l’attachée politique du Député […] for purposes which are not linked to the exercise of the office”, namely partisan purposes. But it turns out that the MP himself did not authorize this use,” she concludes.
During her report, Ariane Mignolet highlights “another issue identified” during her investigation, an embarrassing issue for the CAQ. She discovered that “the constituency office team uses the Coaliste platform when processing files” from citizens.
This party database contains information from the electoral list and is “designed essentially for electoral purposes”. The words “Sympathizer”, “Opponent” and “Not marked” appear in boxes located in each voter’s file, writes the commissioner. Coaliste can be used by MPs and their staff in the exercise of their duties according to it. “Thus, (they) have access, when processing files, to partisan information concerning the people who request their assistance. ”, including “the level of sympathy towards the party”.
“I believe that the mere fact of having access to this information can give the appearance of partisan influence on the processing of a file” and “affects the necessary neutrality of the constituency office,” she wrote. “This situation contributes to blurring the separation between partisan activities and activities linked to the exercise of the office of deputy.”
She asks the CAQ to “immediately put in place the necessary measures so that MPs and members of their staff do not have access, in the exercise of their office or their functions and, even more so, to the “the occasion of processing citizen files, information of a partisan nature recorded in this platform or any other similar register”.
They said
I must admit that I was not perfect during the investigative process that led to this report. Concerning the failings attributed to me, I acknowledge having reacted very badly and having transmitted inaccurate information. […] I apologize for that. […] I remain, more than ever, committed to serving my fellow citizens in the riding of Chauveau. I intend to show them that I am still worthy of their trust.
CAQ MP Sylvain Lévesque, in a statement on Facebook
The party must remove access to the Coaliste in constituency offices. There must be a firewall between the party’s partisan activities and the work of a member’s constituency office, which is there to serve people without making any connection with political affiliation.
The member for Québec solidaire, Vincent Marissal, who requested the investigation
We are demanding that the Prime Minister expel MP Sylvain Lévesque from the CAQ caucus. We cannot say that an MP is not honest enough to be vice-president of the National Assembly, but that he is dishonest enough to be a CAQ MP. It doesn’t hold water. […] He no longer has the legitimacy to represent the citizens of Chauveau.
The leader of the Conservative Party of Quebec, Éric Duhaime, who faced Mr. Lévesque in the 2022 elections and wants to run again if the MP resigns