The mna Guy Ouellette alleged to have transmitted unlawfully to the police information

Photo Simon Clark

Jean-Louis Fortin

Thursday, 18 January, 2018 15:30

UPDATE
Friday, 19 January 2018 01:00

Look at this article

The Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) raided and arrested the liberal mna Guy Ouellette, because he is suspected of having illegally obtained information the police then transmit them to the media.

This is what one learns in the affidavits written by UPAC in order to get the permission to search the residence of the mp, last autumn. On Thursday, the judge Serge Champoux, of the Court of Québec, authorized the release of certain portions of these documents.

Ouellette had been pinned for mysterious reasons on 25 October 2017, in the framework of these searches. But three months later, it still does the subject of no criminal charges.

“I have reasonable and probable grounds to believe that Guy Ouellette obtains or attempts to obtain information from police officers or members of UPAC in order to transmit them to the media,” wrote sergeant Jean-Frédérick Gagnon, of the UPAC, in affidavits drafted in support of the search warrants.

“The mandate that has been entrusted to us is to investigate the theft of documents from an ongoing investigation,” wrote the sergeant Gagnon, who identifies four suspects.

In addition to Ouellette, among them the ex-police officer of UPAC Richard Despatie and the police officer of the Sûreté du Québec Stéphane Bonhomme. The residences of these two men had also been found last fall.

A fourth suspect has committed the alleged offences, but his identity is hidden for the moment.

The UPAC is to bring charges of breach of trust, theft, and obstruction of justice in this case. For the moment, no one has been charged.

According to the argument of the police that Guy Ouellette would have communicated regularly with Richard Despatie, itself in contact with Stéphane Bonhomme. However, it is impossible to know exactly what they have exchanged, in the documents, heavily censored obtained Thursday.

The investigators stated that many of the reports published since 2016 contain privileged information gathered during investigations are still ongoing. They make particular reference to the famous police investigation Mâchurer who is interested in the allegations of illegal funding to the liberal Party of Quebec.

To obtain the search warrants, the UPAC has made the list of the stories published in numerous media outlets, including The Journal, TVA, Radio-Canada, La Presse and L’actualité.

“It is in the public interest to protect the investigations and judicial proceedings,” says the UPAC, which takes care to specify that his team ” does not investigate the sources of journalism or journalists “.

Remember that Guy Ouellette was first himself excluded from the liberal caucus after his arrest, before being reinstated a few weeks later.

He lost to the passage of the presidency of the Commission of the institutions to which the UPAC reported. It has its back to the legacy of the presidency of the Commission of territorial planning.

The maneuver police had pushed the president of the national Assembly, Jacques Chagnon. “Can accuse or excuse,” he said last October 31.

The charges being considered

• Abuse of trust
• Influence or negotiate appointments or make the trade
• Obstructing justice
• Flight
• Possession of property obtained by crime
• Fraud
• Conspiracy

These stories bother UPAC

To convince a judge to obtain search warrants for Guy Ouellette, the UPAC was presented with a long list of media reports that would contain it inside information. Among these are :

A report on the issue Investigation, Radio-Canada, entitled ” e-mails reveal about “our friend Sam” Hamad “.

Publications of The news, in which the journalist Louis Lacroix rumored to have had contact with a source nicknamed “Peter” who knows the workings of government.

The revelations of our Bureau of investigation, according to which the UPAC and the royal Canadian mounted police are interested in a check of $ 25,000 issued by John Rizzuto and cashed by the former mayor of Montreal, Denis Coderre.

Several articles from our Bureau of inquiry concerning the investigation of UPAC, during which were monitored ex-prime minister Jean Charest and the ex-treasurer liberal Marc Bibeau.

Another section of our Office of investigation with respect to the leases, the companies of Marc Bibeau had with the provincial government.

Articles in the daily Press entitled ” Exclusive : complaints at the UPAC, but no investigation “, and ” UPAC : an investigator fired for having encouraged a whistleblower to talk to the media “.

How the UPAC has “baited” Guy Ouellette

As she had suspected, Guy Ouellette and the police officer Richard Despatie regular exchange of information, the UPAC wanted to prove that the two men were able to give appointments. Posing for Despatie, the investigators have contacted the member of parliament and invited the latter to retrieve documents.

It is a “bait” and not a trap, ensured a few days later Robert Lafrenière, head of UPAC, at a press conference.

Here’s how its investigators have taken :

First step

• On the 25th of October at 9: 15 a.m., a detective sergeant of the UPAC seized the cell phone of the police officer Richard Despatie, in Brossard.
• An investigator uses the phone Despatie to send a message to Guy Ouellette, who was then at Quebec. “The objective sought by the police is to pretend to be Richard Despatie and that it has a “scoop” that may be of interest to Guy Ouellette, ” reads a court document.

Second step

• At 12: 56, another investigator submits a plastic bag in the effigy of the grocery store Metro behind a charging point for electric cars in the parking lot of a Tim Hortons restaurant in Laurier-Station, on the outskirts of Quebec. The plastic bag contains a brown paper bag inside of which were placed white sheets.
• As expected the police officers, Guy Ouellette presents itself well and truly at Tim Hortons in Laurier-Station. It is 13: 39. Without knowing that the police monitors, the mp retrieves the bag and places it in his vehicle.
• The mp is booby-trapped. Less than a minute later, an investigator who was waiting on the spot to stop Guy Ouellette without a warrant. He also took her phone

Third step

• Guy Ouellette is led by the Sûreté du Québec to be interrogated, before being released in the middle of the evening.

Read in the documents of the UPAC

“The extent of the theft suffered by the investigation Department on corruption UPAC is unknown. “

“The leaks of documents or information are produced in time periods where the commissioner of the anti-corruption UPAC deals with the executive branch of the provincial government of Quebec. “

“Our investigation does not include journalists or the journalistic sources. “