She wants to prevent the police from using materials seized

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In June 2014, the Charbonneau commission, former director of the funding of the QLP Violette Trépanier had stated that there was no accounting occult, the QLP, and that he was wrong to say that the party urged the firms to fill in his register of electors.

Jean-Louis Fortin

Friday, 22 December, 2017 01:00

UPDATE
Friday, 22 December, 2017 01:00

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UPAC raided the home of the ex-head of fundraising of the liberal Party of Quebec Violette Trépanier as part of the famous investigation Mâchurer on the financing of the party. The woman tries for a year to prevent the police from using the seized equipment.

Court documents obtained yesterday by our Bureau of investigation show that the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) raided the apartment of Ms. Trépanier on December 12, 2016.

Violette Trépanier is known to the general public for having been one of the witnesses striking of the Charbonneau commission, in 2014. This former mp and minister in the liberal governments of the 1980s and 1990s has been the director of the funding of the QLP from 2001 to 2012.

As such, it is one of the many persons of interest to UPAC in its investigation of allegations of fraud and abuse of confidence within the liberal Party of Quebec (PLQ) at the time when the party was led by Jean Charest.

In December 2016, the UPAC has entered six items in a box of brown leather, which was at Violette Trépanier. It includes, amongst other documents prepared for the Director general of elections and the Charbonneau commission, as well as a white sheet of paper called ” explanation concerning illegal contribution “.

The lawyer of Ms. Trépanier, Gérald Soulière, has challenged the seizure under the pretext that the documents taken by the investigators to contain material protected by the privilege, attorney client.

Been waiting a year

The judicial procedures are still ongoing, so more than a year after the seizure, investigators have still not been able to analyze the fruit of their harvest.

This is not the first time that judicial proceedings to put sticks in the wheels of the investigators. The ex-treasurer liberal Marc Bibeau, also in the crosshairs of the police, went to the supreme Court to try to prevent the police to use copies of boxes for mail entered at the end of 2013. This is the February 2, 2017 as he has suffered a setback, which means that the police have not had access to the seized material for three years.

Marc Bibeau has also filed a new application, on the 11th of December last, to prevent the media from publishing details on the supporting documents used by police to obtain search warrants that targeted his business.

No one has been charged to this day. Last week, the head of UPAC, Robert Lafreniere, stated that it was “full of optimism” about the possibility of charges being filed in the investigation Mâchurer. He said that more than 300 witnesses had been encountered up to now.

The charges being considered

In the course of its investigation Mâchurer, UPAC investigated these alleged offences :

• Bribery of a public official
• Fraud against the government
• Abuse of trust
• Contractor subscribing to a cash election
• Conspiracy

Source : Query of the Crown