Quebec Liberal leader threatens legal action over vote-buying scheme allegations
CBC
Quebec Liberal Party Leader Pablo Rodriguez announced his party is putting the Journal de Montréal on notice over an article published earlier this week.
The announcement came after the leader convened his caucus in Montreal on Friday as the party is beset by a series of crises.
The French-language daily published excerpts of alleged text messages that suggest party members were financially rewarded for voting for Rodriguez in the last leadership race.
The Journal de Montréal said it consulted messages exchanged this spring between "two individuals who were actively working to elect Mr. Rodriguez as leader."
The alleged text messages refer to the sale of membership cards and money spent to get people to vote for Rodriguez.
Rodriguez said the intent behind the formal notice is not to uncover the newspaper's sources but discover who was involved in the purported vote-buying scheme.In addition to the names of those involved, Rodriguez said the party wants the telephone numbers associated with the text messages and an explanation on what the paper did prior to publication to verify the authenticity and veracity of what was alleged in the messages.
Rodriguez said Liberal MNA for Chomedey Sona Lakhoyan Olivier informed the caucus that she is also sending a formal notice to Cogeco, after her name was mentioned on a French-language radio show in connection with the allegations.
Rodriguez said Olivier reiterated her innocence, saying she was not the person who wrote the text messages.
Quebecor, which owns the Journal de Montréal, has not yet responded to a request for comment.
Rodriguez also took a moment Friday to defend the party's handling of the situation.
He said the first they heard of any irregularities was on Tuesday evening and they have since called for an external investigation into the matter.
According to the Election Act, however, giving someone money to influence their vote in a leadership race is not illegal.
That news came as a surprise to many, including Premier François Legault who expressed his skepticism earlier in the day on Friday.
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