Quebec’s Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit is in the news again. The organization tasked with ridding the province of corruption has been embroiled in yet another scandal that calls into question whether they are contributing to the issue they’re supposed to be solving.
Court documents that were unsealed on Feb. 8 show the efforts of UPAC investigators to track down the source of media leaks.
One of the most high profile leaks came in April when classified documents showed that there was an investigation into former Premier Jean Charest. Charest has not been charged.
The investigation into the leaks targeted two UPAC employees, a Quebec construction boss and Liberal MNA Guy Oulette.
Oulette, who headed up the committee responsible for overseeing UPAC and its funding, was arrested by UPAC investigators in October and released without charges.
It looks pretty fishy when a police organization arrests a politician tasked with an oversight role of that very organization and releases him with no charges.
According to the court documents, the leaks revolved around the investigation into Nathalie Normandeau, the Quebec Liberal party’s deputy premier who had been arrested that March.
Another one of the alleged leakers is former construction boss and provincial Liberal organizer Lino Zambito, who pleaded guilty to fraud and corruption charges in 2015.
Zambito held a press conference on Feb. 10 to call for an independent investigation of UPAC and to announce that he will no longer collaborate with the unit.
Although Zambito was suspected of being responsible for the media leaks, he claims it was UPAC employees that were responsible.
“When officers go to arrest someone at six in the morning, and journalists are already parked outside, it’s not coming from the suspect,” Zambito said. “There’s only one source, and that’s UPAC.”
Zambito said the need for an independent investigation is especially dire considering the fact that the provincial government is in the process of adopting Bill 107, which will give the unit increased powers and will create an oversight committee made up of provincial politicians.
It’s hard to argue with him.
UPAC was created to restore public faith in a police and political system that has been dogged by accusations of corruption for years.
But, as we saw during a recent investigation at the Municipality of Pontiac, UPAC doesn’t seem all that interested in speaking to the public.
Getting information out of UPAC about the nature of the investigation was like pulling teeth.
How is this supposed to restore public faith if the public isn’t even being kept in the loop?
Now that the public gets to see behind the veil, where it seems UPAC is spending more time cutting down on embarrassing media leaks than it is rooting out corruption.
We also learned through the release of these court documents that politicians aren’t even getting information out of UPAC.
According to PQ Leader Jean-Francois Lisée, politicians are being refused access to important documents and the ones they do get are heavily redacted.
This looks like something right out of the movie The Departed where nobody in the police force trusts anyone else and nobody has any idea what each other is doing.
Again, is this reinforcing public trust in the province’s law enforcement?
The release of these court documents comes hot on the heels of the release of an investigation into workplace complaints by UPAC employees.
Not only has UPAC struggled to stay on track when it comes to their stated goal, but apparently UPAC employees are becoming disgruntled thanks to a toxic working environment.
A three-page summary of a report prepared by Karine Martel, a human-resources expert with the Sûreté du Québec, portrays an environment of jealousy, rivalry and competition between employees and a promotion process based on favouritism.
Not only is UPAC struggling to get along with the public it serves and the politicians it reports to, but now we find out UPAC employees can’t even get along with each other.
Not very reassuring for a police unit that is set to get it’s powers expanded.
Chris Lowrey
