Claude Surprenant, the former deputy for the Groulx ride for Coalition avenir Québec, will go on a crusade. Excluded from the caucus in 2017 and reprimanded in the National Assembly for alleged misconduct, he expects a public apology from the prime minister.
Mr. also estimates. Surprenant and his attorney that he should get financial compensation of nearly a million dollars. I will go all the way, secures the former elected, who became a businessman on the North Shore of Montreal. In recent weeks, he has stepped up his efforts to gain the support of representatives and get compensation.
” The National Assembly must openly say that a mistake has been made, that we apologize and we correct it! I should be paid fairly! “
Bullets by Claude Surprenant
In February, the Administrative Labor Tribunal (TAT) ruled him in favor. The conviction gives him reason to dismiss a political attaché for serious misconduct, similar to taking money from the county office’s bank account, neglecting the management of the office’s financial resources, and making false representations to a supplier. The woman’s testimony contained several contradictions and she held a fake lawyer’s degree.
Me Pierre Paquin said his client already has deceived by a persistent liar. Claude Surprenant also won a lawsuit against him in the Court of Quebec, Small Claims Division, to recover the undue amount of money he claimed.
However, the same political attaché was one of three employees who testified in the Ethics Commissioner’s investigation. The report recommends reprimanding Claude Surprenant.
His blames on the ethics commissioner
In his report, former commissioner Jacques St-Laurent condemned the MP for managing the finances of the constituency office. However, he recommended the imposition of sanctions for other reasons: the use of political personnel for partisan purposes while they are paid for by public funds. Mr. St-Laurent also regrets the fact that the former MP awarded professional service contracts to his architect wife for the layout of his office in the constituency.
A majority of representatives in the National Assembly supported the rebuke.
Claude Surprenant and his attorney are pleading for the favorable verdict of TAT invalidate important portions of the Ethics Commissioner’s report. According to them, the decision was partly based on the testimony of the political attaché whose credibility was undermined. The commissioner believed someone was lyingHe added.
They are asking new commissioner Ariane Mignolet to review her predecessor’s decision. However, it cannot do so because it has no jurisdiction over an investigation whose report has already been submitted to the National Assembly. That was confirmed by its communications advisor, Anne-Sophie St-Gelais the Code does not provide an appeal mechanism or a mechanism to reopen an investigation or diversify its findings.
Only the National Assembly can do follow-up. This is why Claude Surprenant contacted MNAs, specifically to show them the limitations of the code of ethics to which they themselves have been exposed, in case there is a challenge to a report. He also plans to meet in the next few days with the chairman of the caucus CAQ Mario Laframboise, as well as Secretary General of the National Assembly Siegfried Peters.
His blames on CAQ
As for his exclusion from the party, we manage perceptions. I try not to be bitter, lamented Claude Surprenant. His boss, François Legault, excluded him before the ethics commissioner released his report. Mr. reacted. Legault in various media reports about the contracts awarded to his representative’s wife, but also on accommodation and travel costs that raised many questions at the time.
Claude Surprenant, who has always denied embezzling public funds, has ended his term as an independent deputy. In 2018, current Finance Minister Eric Girard replaced him. Since Groulx’s constituency remained caquiste, he was convinced he would be re -elected if he remained in the party.
In the compensation he demands, he then calculates the four years salary as a representative, as well as all the financial and social benefits associated with it. The National Assembly paid a large portion of my expenses and I appreciate them, but I still paid a few tens of thousands of dollars myself. Aside from the additional attorney’s fees, he also intends to claim the amount for losing reputation.
In total, we’re talking about a million and more, he explained, in the presence of his attorney, that the formal notice had not yet been formed. It can be addressed to CAQ and the National Assembly. We do not exclude anyonesaid Mr. Pierre Paquin.
The lawyer suggests that an apology from the Prime Minister could reduce the cost of the claim. He admitted, however, that he was absent there is no legal way to ask these apologies.
Source: Radio-Canada
