Partisan data shared with MNA’s office, ethics report finds 

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

The riding office of at least one Quebec City-area Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) MNA has access to data showing constituents’ voting tendencies, a report by Quebec Ethics Commissioner Ariane Mignolet has found.

Mignolet launched an investigation into Chauveau MNA Sylvain Lévesque after he was accused of having made “inexact statements” during a separate ethics investigation. That investigation looked into an allegation that an employee in Lévesque’s office had suggested that a constituent attend a $100-per-person cocktail fundraiser to meet Finance Minister Éric Girard.

According to Mignolet’s report, released late last week, Québec Solidaire MNA Vincent Marissal requested an investigation into whether Lévesque’s office violated an ethics code restriction on MNAs using “state resources” for activities not directly linked to their parliamentary duties. During that investigation, Lévesque told Mignolet he had transferred a document to Girard’s office when he hadn’t actually done so, the report states. Although Mignolet’s report cleared Lévesque of the violation Marissal alleged, the ethics com- missioner censured Lévesque for making a false statement. “The evidence shows that [Lévesque] attempted to ob- struct and trick the commissioner in the exercise of her duties,” Mignolet wrote.

All MNAs have office staff who take calls from constituents asking for help accessing community or provincial government services or soliciting support for an organization, event or petition. The guidance staff members offer is free and available to any resident of the MNA’s riding, regardless of citizenship, voter registration or party affiliation. During her investigation, Mignolet found that Lévesque’s office used a software platform called Coaliste to verify callers’ addresses to ensure they lived in his riding.

The same software platform is used in Coalition Avenir Québec campaign efforts. “Since Coaliste is used primarily for electoral purposes, the words ‘sympathizer,’ ‘adversary’ and ‘not marked’ appear in boxes located in each voter’s file. Thus, when processing files, members and their staff have access to partisan information about the people who request their assistance,” Mignolet wrote. “This situation indicates a mixture of genres that contributes to blurring the distinction between partisan activities and activities related to the exercise of the office of MNA.”

The QCT contacted several Quebec City-area CAQ MNAs to inquire whether they used the software. A political attaché for Montmorency MNA Jean-François Simard referred a request for comment to Marc Danis, communications director for government chief whip Mario Laframboise. “No one at the CAQ processes constituent files based on party affiliation,” Danis said. “We have dedicated staff in our riding offices.”

Mona Lechasseur, a spokesperson for Charlesbourg MNA Jonatan Julien, said, “The riding office does not use a categorized list of citizens in the handling of citizens’ inquiries.” Neither Danis nor Lechasseur addressed whether MNAs or their staff had access to the list.

No one at the office of Louis-Hébert MNA Geneviève Guilbault or La Peltrie MNA Éric Caire was available to comment at press time.