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A Quebec Superior Court docket decide heard closing arguments Wednesday in former Quebec premier Jean Charest’s lawsuit in opposition to the province’s legal professional normal. Charest is in search of $2 million over how info from a UPAC investigation was leaked to the media.
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Michel Déom, a lawyer representing the legal professional normal, argued earlier than Justice Gregory Moore within the civil trial on the Montreal courthouse that started earlier this week. The previous Quebec Liberal Get together chief has been attending the proceedings in particular person this week.
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“They’re tossing out bits and items in an effort to persuade you that a regular has been damaged,” Déom instructed the decide. “However I’ve hassle discovering which normal precisely was transgressed and by whom. Among the many proof, there may be not quite a bit that got here out towards that finish.”
Charest filed the lawsuit in October 2020, initially in search of $1 million for the leaks that got here out of the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) investigation that started in 2014 and finally produced no legal expenses in opposition to anybody focused in it. The anticorruption squad probed how the Liberal occasion carried out its fundraising whereas Charest was premier. The probe was primarily based on allegations that initially surfaced through the Charbonneau Fee.
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In February, UPAC introduced it had closed the investigation.
Some individuals who testified through the Charbonneau Fee alleged that Charest’s buddy, Marc Bibeau, provided the heads of building and engineering corporations beneficial therapy on bids for presidency contracts in the event that they donated generously to the occasion.
Déom argued that a lot of what was reported on got here out of the Charbonneau Fee and {that a} particular article revealed by the Journal de Montréal, which is central to Charest’s lawsuit, didn’t reveal a lot about his non-public life.
The Journal de Montréal article in query, revealed in April 2017, contained particular particulars about what info UPAC investigators sought pertaining to Charest and Bibeau. That included how investigators requested the Canada Border Companies Company for particulars on what number of instances the 2 males crossed the Canadian border and for particulars on Charest’s passport. The article additionally talked about how UPAC tried, in 2016, to acquire warrants to eavesdrop on Charest and Bibeau’s conversations.
On Might 4, 2017, Robert Lafrenière, head of UPAC on the time, was referred to as to testify earlier than a committee on the Nationwide Meeting and he conceded the leaks got here from the anticorruption squad.
On Tuesday, Charest’s lawyer, Jacques Jeansonne, argued the legal professional normal was relentless within the investigation dubbed Operation Mâchurer and acted in unhealthy religion. The legal professional additionally instructed the decide Charest and his household have suffered from what was leaked.
