{"id":311590,"date":"2025-11-28T04:00:11","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/311590\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T04:00:11","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T04:00:11","slug":"anti-corruption-police-looking-into-quebec-liberals-as-internal-crisis-shakes-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/311590\/","title":{"rendered":"Anti-corruption police looking into Quebec Liberals as internal crisis shakes party"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Pablo Rodriguez’s Liberals have been in crisis since the party\u2019s former leader in the legislature, Marwah Rizqy, fired her chief of staff without consulting the party leader.Jacques Boissinot\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Quebec\u2019s anti-corruption police say they are looking into the internal crisis shaking the province\u2019s Liberals, as their political rivals feast over a steady stream of embarrassing news that is threatening to tarnish the party\u2019s image and is putting pressure on its leader.<\/p>\n

Mathieu Galarneau, a spokesperson for the anti-corruption unit known as UPAC, said investigators are working to validate allegations of wrongdoing before deciding whether to open an official investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cFollowing the analysis of this information, we will be able to decide whether or not to proceed further,\u201d Galarneau said, confirming the police force\u2019s involvement, first reported by Journal de Montreal on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The Quebec Liberals have been in crisis since Marwah Rizqy, the party\u2019s former leader in the legislature, fired her chief of staff without consulting party leader Pablo Rodriguez. In response, Rodriguez then removed Rizqy from her position last week and suspended her from caucus, citing a breach of trust.<\/p>\n

Editorial: Leadership races are not private parties<\/a><\/p>\n

Quebec Liberal leader Pablo Rodriguez demands external investigation into cash-for-votes report<\/a><\/p>\n

Adding to the controversy was a story published last week in the Journal de Montr\u00e9al revealing alleged text messages from unidentified parties suggesting some members who supported Rodriguez during the leadership race received cash rewards. Rodriguez says he welcomes the involvement of the anti-corruption unit and that he has mandated the party to investigate the allegations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sincerely hope that UPAC will shed light on this matter and, if necessary, file the appropriate charges. I would like to remind you that I have requested an independent investigation to get to the bottom of this. And I am committed to making the report public,\u201d Rodriguez wrote on social media Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

Last week, Rodriguez announced his party would be sending a legal letter to the Montreal tabloid in an effort to learn the names of the people involved and the phone numbers associated with the text messages. Rodriguez said he also wanted the Journal to explain how it verified the \u201cauthenticity and veracity\u201d of the messages.<\/p>\n

Another layer was added Wednesday when La Presse reported that Fay\u00e7al El-Khoury, the member of Parliament for Laval\u2013Les \u00celes, had a discussion with Rizqy on Nov. 14 that caught the attention of \u00c9lections Qu\u00e9bec because of a possible link to Rodriguez\u2019s leadership bid. Rodriguez won the leadership race in June.\u00a0<\/p>\n

When contacted by The Canadian Press, Elections Qu\u00e9bec did not confirm whether they were investigating. Rodriguez said he didn\u2019t know if the elections agency was looking into the matter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, the Liberal leader confirmed that El-Khoury had solicited donations for his leadership campaign. \u201cHe had a solicitation certificate, which is public information. That means he was collecting money like many others,\u201d Rodriguez said.<\/p>\n

Rizqy has largely remained silent on the affair. On Sunday, ahead of Rodriguez\u2019s appearance on a popular Quebec talk show \u201cTout le monde en parle,\u201d she wrote on Facebook that she could not comment publicly because the dismissal of her chief of staff, Genevi\u00e8ve Hinse, was a human resources matter. Rizqy also acknowledged the situation had put her \u201cpolitical family in a delicate position.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rizqy has said she won\u2019t seek re-election in 2026 and will focus on her young family.<\/p>\n

For his part, upon leaving the federal Liberal caucus meeting on Wednesday, El-Khoury did not respond to reporters\u2019 questions about his involvement in Rodriguez\u2019s leadership race. The federal MP said he would make a statement later, without offering specifics.<\/p>\n

The other political parties at the national assembly seized on the series of controversies this week, with Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette calling it a repeat of previous scandals that had dogged the party.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we are seeing, once again, with the Quebec Liberal Party, is that it is the same old Liberal party that has not changed. The same illegal practices, the same ethically questionable practices,\u201d Jolin-Barrette said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The government of former premier Jean Charest \u2013 in office from 2003-2012 \u2013 was badly tarnished by a scandal involving corruption in the construction sector and the illegal financing of political parties. Although no member of the Liberals was charged with a crime, a public inquiry \u2013 known as the Charbonneau commission \u2013 revealed widespread corruption in the construction industry, often involving organized crime, and the close ties with municipal and provincial politicians.<\/p>\n

On Thursday morning, Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon also weighed in. \u201cIt\u2019s no surprise that UPAC repeatedly finds itself investigating the Quebec Liberal Party, and it\u2019s not just Pablo Rodriguez; it\u2019s an entire organization.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Pablo Rodriguez’s Liberals have been in crisis since the party\u2019s former leader in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311591,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-311590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311590"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311590\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}