Violation of the code of ethics | The National Assembly reprimands MP Sylvain Lévesque

(Quebec) The National Assembly reprimanded CAQ MP Sylvain Lévesque on Thursday for trying to deceive the ethics commissioner who was investigating him. The CAQ members voted in favor of this symbolic reprimand against their colleague. But they refused to use a party database, called “Coaliste”, which lists voters according to their political allegiance, in the processing of citizens’ files.

In the House on Thursday, members of the opposition parties and those of the Legault government voted in favor of a reprimand against Mr. Lévesque. This sanction is a recommendation from Commissioner Ariane Mignolet, who concluded that the MP violated the code of ethics. The CAQ members made the decision to implement the commissioner’s recommendation during a caucus meeting Wednesday evening.

Read the article “MP Sylvain Lévesque blamed, CAQ splashed”

Sylvain Lévesque remains the MP for Chauveau, in Quebec, and a member of the Caucus caucus. He resigned from his position as vice-president of the National Assembly when the investigation report of Mr.^e Ariane Mignolet on Wednesday. Caquist Sylvie D’Amours replaces Mr. Lévesque in this position, which comes with a bonus of $46,118.

The Commissioner’s report also plunged François Legault’s party into embarrassment.

During his investigation, Mr.^e Mignolet discovered that “the constituency office team [de Chauveau] uses the Coaliste platform when processing citizens’ files. 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. ” So, [ils] 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”.

The parliamentary leader of the government and Minister of Justice, Simon Jolin-Barrette, defended the probity of the CAQ members. “We do not consult someone’s political allegiance before providing a service. The role of the MP is to represent all citizens, regardless of who they voted for,” he argued during a press scrum. He added that the counting of voters is only done during election periods. According to him, the Coaliste is used by constituency offices for other purposes, notably “to create graphics” for advertisements.

“What is alleged by Mr.^me Mignolet, I completely refute that. I have never used a list or anything to help a citizen,” said the MP for Drummond–Bois-Francs, Sébastien Schneeberger. “On the contrary, if let’s admit that I suspect, or whatever, that it’s a person who doesn’t vote for me, at worst I will be able to help him more because I don’t want him to tell me that I don’t want to help him. »

“I have never had anyone come to my constituency office and look[il] voted for me or not. It’s fiction, it can’t be that,” argued Donald Martel (Nicolet-Bécancour).

In brief comments to journalists, Mathieu Rivest (Côte-du-Sud) presented the Coaliste as a “very nice tool” while Daniel Bernard (Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue) affirmed that he “does not work with that” .

According to the general director of the CAQ, Brigitte Legault, the party will analyze the recommendation of the Ethics Commissioner regarding access to the Coaliste.

“We’re going to see if we make any changes to the visibility of certain information” accessible to constituency office employees, she said in an interview.

She added that the recommendation also concerns other political parties which all have such a platform. The Liberal Party, Québec Solidaire and the Parti Québécois affirmed that their constituency offices do not use this tool in processing citizens’ files.

With Fanny Lévesque and Charles Lecavalier, The Press