The CAQ denies listing citizens according to their beliefs

CAQ elected officials refuse to file citizens who come to their offices based on their political allegiances.

An investigation report from the Ethics Commissioner of the National Assembly revealed Wednesday that employees of constituency offices and CAQ elected officials cross-reference data from the electoral list to make tallies, i.e. determine the allegiance of each voter for the next campaign.

The National Assembly unanimously blamed on Thursday morning the CAQ member targeted by Commissioner Ariane Mignolet’s investigation, Sylvain Lévesque. He resigned on Wednesday from his post as second vice-president of the National Assembly. Elected officials approved on Thursday the appointment of CAQ MP Sylvie d’Amour to replace him.

The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) caucus, however, decided not to exclude it.

Many CAQ elected officials rushed by or responded evasively to questions about the use of the Coaliste in their offices, but the government’s parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, rose to the defense of his troops.

Citizens are not identified based on their political allegiances, they are treated based on their issues.

The Coalist, it’s a very nice toolfor his part recognized the CAQ deputy for Côte-du-Sud, Mathieu Rivest.

The member for Nicolet-Bécancour, Donald Martel, for his part said that he was going to review the use of Coaliste in his constituency office, while adding that he has never discriminated against voters.

We never looked to see if someone who came to my office voted for me or not.he clarified.

Likewise, the MP for Beauce-Nord, Luc Provençal, and Minister Jonatan Julien let it be known that they did not use the Coaliste in their county offices.

Under fire from critics

Liberal leader Marc Tanguay recalled that the constituency office is not the place to score tallies and that all citizens must be served, regardless of their beliefs.

The Coaliste has no business in a county officesaid Mr. Tanguay, in the press scrum.

He assured that the staff of the offices of Liberal MPs did not engage in this practice.

MP Alejandra Zaga Mendez, from Québec solidaire (QS), said that the constituency offices of QS do not score with county cases.

Are electoral lists and partisan lists used everywhere in the CAQ constituency offices to filter, to judge the admissibility of a county case?

That is extremely problematic. We ask ourselves questions about who gives these types of instructions to other offices? she continued.

PQ MP Joël Arseneau assured that there was no partisan work taking place in his constituency office.

How can you be a deputy for a constituency and assess whether you are going to support and support and help a fellow citizen according to his political allegiance? For me, quite the opposite has been happening in my riding, for six years. Partisan political considerations are in no case taken into account.

Mentions in voter files

In her report published Wednesday on the case of CAQ MP Sylvain Lévesque, Commissioner Ariane Mignolet deplores that members of the staff of CAQ elected representatives and the MPs themselves have access in their office to data identifying each voter’s level of sympathy for the party as well as other partisan information.

So the words sympathizer, opponent et not pointed are in boxes in each voter’s file. The staff therefore holds this information when a citizen speaks to them.

This situation indicates a mixture of genres which contributes to blurring the separation between partisan activities and activities linked to the exercise of the office of deputy.deplores the commissioner, recalling that every citizen has the right to assistance from the deputy, without regard to their political opinions.

A critical report

Originally, in January 2023, Québec solidaire (QS) requested the commissioner’s investigation into Mr. Lévesque because it had been reported that a member of the constituency office staff had used the computer equipment and The official email address provided by the National Assembly to promote the partisan fundraising activities of the CAQ, in contravention of an article of the Code of Ethics.

Ultimately, the MP was cleared of these allegations, but the commissioner concluded that he had attempted to deceive her and obstruct her investigative work, which constitute violations of the Code of Ethics.

More specifically, Mr. Lévesque attempted to conceal facts, communicated inaccurate information, attempted to mislead the commissioner and destroyed evidence, among other things, the commissioner concluded.

The MP still trivializes the repercussions of his conductwe read in the report.

He does not seem to realize that it not only harmed the investigation, but that it also – and above all – had the effect of bringing the institution of the commissioner into disrepute. Indeed, despite his targeted apologies, the MP only partially recognized his errors.

All deputies, including those of the CAQtherefore voted Thursday morning in favor of a reprimand, as recommended by the commissioner. Only the independent member for Saint-Jérôme, Youri Chassin, abstained.