PQ wants to force disclosure of Grenier Commission documents

Photo: Jacques Grenier Archives Le Devoir The No camp allegedly spent more than half a million dollars in illegal expenses during the 1995 referendum campaign.

The Parti Québécois (PQ) has had enough of the “obstinacy” of the Director General of Elections of Quebec (DGEQ) in keeping secret the documents of the commission that investigated the financing of the No referendum camp in 1995. MNA Pascal Bérubé will legislate so that the veil is finally lifted on them.

After having passed a motion — and then giving its approval to another — to force the disclosure of the documentation of the Grenier commission of inquiry, the PQ believes it has no other option but to take the legislative route. Elected representative Bérubé will table a bill on Wednesday to force the DGEQ to quickly make available the information it has on this subject.

“[We] want to know what is in the documents of the No committee held in the boxes of the Grenier commission. We are right to believe that what is found there deserves to be known and could have a decisive impact on Quebec political life,” Mr. Bérubé told Le Devoir on Tuesday.

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In 2006-2007, former judge Bernard Grenier meticulously studied the activities carried out by the Option Canada group in the weeks and months preceding the 1995 referendum. His work, subject to a non-broadcast and non-publication order, concluded that the No camp had spent more than half a million dollars in illegal expenses during the referendum campaign.

Refusal of DGEQ

In May and June 2023, elected members of the National Assembly took turns supporting motions from the PQ and the Coalition avenir Québec to order the DGEQ to make the Grenier Commission documents public. “What I want is for all possible information to be made public,” Premier François Legault said at the time.

The Quebec MNAs believed at the time that a simple motion would do the trick. However, that is not the case. Despite pressure from parliamentarians, the Director General of Elections, Jean-François Blanchet, has so far refused to lift the ban on the distribution of documents consulted by Judge Grenier in 2007. Only legislative amendments would change things, he stated last year.

In a document obtained by Le Devoir, he had then indicated that “in the current state of the law, responding favourably to the request of parliamentarians would not only go against [the] legal framework, but would also potentially be very costly.” An argument that the PQ had then rejected, maintaining that the unanimous adoption of a motion protected it from legal proceedings.

“The Chief Electoral Officer is stubbornly refusing to give us the documents. That is problematic. […] I will not hide our exasperation,” Pascal Bérubé stressed on Tuesday, according to whom the possible adoption of a law would no longer leave room for interpretation.

“He will have no choice but to respect a law. So, we are putting it into play. We hope that the parties, who have all supported us, will ensure that we adopt this bill,” he added.

The legislation introduced by Mr. Bérubé — promised since last year — provides for the disclosure of documents only to parliamentarians, who would “ensure that confidentiality is respected” and “give themselves the highest criteria for looking at what is there.” They would then decide what deserves to be publicly disseminated and what deserves to remain confidential.

“Quebecers deserve to know,” concluded Mr. Bérubé.