Anti-Corruption Commissioner Frédérick Gaudreau allegedly concealed the reprehensible actions of his predecessor Robert Lafrenière, argues whistleblower Annie Trudel in a book published today.
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Autopsying the fake UPAC investigation, the Charbonneau Commission witness returns to the famous Project A, that investigation launched in 2017 by Robert Lafrenière to uncover those responsible for information leaks at the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC). .
“The current commissioner […]Frédérick Gaudreau has long known that the suspects [du Projet A] actually innocent targets are that investigators were intimidated by pressure from the commissioner and those around him and that the investigation was misdirected to protect the real suspects,” she wrote.
Since the end of October 2018, the Office of Independent Investigations (BEI) has been conducting an investigation called Oath into the handling of Project A. Robert Lafrenière is one of the suspects, although he denies blaming himself.
witness to the confession
Annie Trudel bases her 456-page book on the Oath Inquiry documents released by the Supreme Court last May.
She says that Frédérick Gaudreau, Robert Lafrenière’s right-hand man at the time, attended a meeting with Lafrenière and a UPAC lawyer in August 2018, where the investigation leaked information. At the time, independent investigators were leading the investigation, a few months before the BEI took over.
During that meeting, Frédérick Gaudreau would have witnessed Robert Lafrenière’s confession that he himself had orchestrated an information leak. But Mr Gaudreau would have refused the lawyer informing the investigators.
“Under Section 260 of the Police Act, Frédérick Gaudreau should have reported the commissioner’s criminal activities instead of covering him up,” writes Annie Trudel in her book.
Annie Trudel
whistleblower
Specifically, this section of the law provides that “every police officer must inform his manager of conduct by another police officer which is likely to constitute a criminal offense”.
try to protect
A few months later, Frédérick Gaudreau took over the management of UPAC.
“It will require the intervention of Me Annick Murphy (then head of law and law enforcement) for the investigation to be removed from the hands of Frédérick Gaudreau,” he who “preferred to try to protect the investigation that went into the water.” could have fallen if all of this became known,” adds Annie Trudel.
We reached out to Frédérick Gaudreau for comment, but he declined as “BE is still conducting its investigation into the leaks and Project A”.
Bergeron regrets not firing him
Former Minister of Public Safety Stéphane Bergeron regrets keeping Robert Lafrenière in office when the Parti Québécois came to power in 2012.
The person signing the preface to the UPAC sham autopsy says she visited the UPAC offices shortly after she was appointed Minister.
Even then, the organization was plagued by “an atmosphere of distrust, even rivalry,” he says.
“I had little faith in that [Robert Lafrenière] ‘ writes the ex-minister, who says he decided not to show him the door so as not to upset the organization at a time when the fight against corruption was a government priority.
Stephane Bergeron
ex-minister
A decision he now “regrets,” he writes, “may have been wrong” to maintain the status quo.
“Serious Misconduct”
Robert Lafrenière remained at the helm of UPAC for six more years. Meanwhile, his organization has been marred by several controversies, including the arrest of Deputy Prime Minister Nathalie Normandeau when the budget was presented to the National Assembly. There was also the arrest of MP Guy Ouellette “in flagrant violation of parliamentary privileges”, to use Mr Bergeron’s words.
The BEI Inquiry’s oath over the manner in which the investigations, led by Robert Lafrenière, were conducted has so far resulted in no formal charges.
However, by ordering a stay of Nathalie Normandeau’s trial in September 2020, Judge André Perreault of the Quebec Court of Justice shed light on the “grave misconduct” of Lafrenière and his close guard.
He wrote that UPAC’s top leadership had launched a “false investigation” targeting innocent people and misleading the justice system.
“I dare not even imagine what might have happened if the inspector and his henchmen had put as much effort and ingenuity into tracking down the real criminals as they obviously did in order to blame others for their own perfidy give,” writes Stéphane Bergeron, now a Bloc Quebecis MP.
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