{"id":665852,"date":"2026-05-13T03:54:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665852\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T03:54:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T03:54:21","slug":"pq-leader-says-he-believes-ottawa-may-be-spying-on-party-offers-no-proof-montreal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665852\/","title":{"rendered":"PQ leader says he believes Ottawa may be spying on party, offers no proof &#8211; Montreal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\tDescrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tIncrease article font size<\/p>\n<p>The leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois says he believes the federal government may be spying on his party, despite saying he has no proof.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/70c8fc80.png\" alt=\"\" style=\"position:absolute;width:1px;height:1px\" referrerpolicy=\"no-referrer-when-downgrade\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Paul St-Pierre Plamondon told reporters Tuesday there is \u201ca long history of surveillance targeting the PQ,\u201d but said the party does not have the means to confirm whether it is currently happening.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there\u2019s one constant in the history of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois, it\u2019s that the leader and influential members are spied on,\u201d he said at a press conference at the legislature in Quebec City.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-blockquote__content l-article__blockquoteContent\">\u201cThe truth is, we don\u2019t have the means to verify it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The PQ leader said modern technology has made potential eavesdropping easier, and that he is operating under the assumption Ottawa could be listening.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"170\" height=\"225\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1767930311_275_national.jpg\" alt=\"Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won't miss a trending story.\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\tGet breaking National news<\/p>\n<p>Get breaking Canada news delivered to your inbox as it happens so you won&#8217;t miss a trending story.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s much easier than back in the day when someone had to tape a recorder to their stomach,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<p>He said party members are taking precautions, including placing phones in signal-proof bags and removing them from meeting rooms.<\/p>\n<p>St-Pierre Plamondon isn\u2019t wrong to say that the federal government has been interested in the PQ in years past. For example, the recently-deceased Claude Morin, an architect of the PQ\u2019s 1976 election victory, was a paid informant for the RCMP.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know that each decade, the Government of Canada has taken ethically and legally very questionable steps to monitor elected PQ members.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Quebec\u2019s public security minister, Ian Lafreni\u00e8re, said he was surprised by the comments and expressed doubt.<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\tMore on Politics<br \/>\n\t\t\tMore videos\n\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m not saying it\u2019s impossible. I really doubt it,\u201d he said, adding the PQ\u2019s positions are already well known.<\/p>\n<p>The PQ is currently leading in the polls ahead of Quebec\u2019s October general election and has pledged to hold a sovereignty referendum by 2030 if it forms government.<\/p>\n<p>Poll aggregator Qc125 suggests the PQ would win about 64 seats, or a slim majority, if the vote was held today.<\/p>\n<p>\u2013with files from The Canadian Press<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" class=\"c-video__image\" alt=\"Click to play video: 'Support for Quebec Independence at low ebb according to new poll'\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/SOVEREIGNTY_SUPPORT_WAN_OM01QYCZ_thumbnail_1280x720_.jpg\" loading=\"lazy\"   data-\/><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t2:23<br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSupport for Quebec Independence at low ebb according to new poll\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\tPrevious Video<\/p>\n<p>\t\tNext Video<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t&amp;copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Descrease article font size Increase article font size The leader of the Parti Qu\u00e9b\u00e9cois says he believes the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665853,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739,245663,714,160907],"class_list":["post-665852","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa","tag-parti-quebecois","tag-politics","tag-spying"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665852","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=665852"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665852\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665853"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665852"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665852"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665852"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}