Quebec: Liberal Party corruption, police spying on journalists | What's Left
Montreal had two stories break this week, one dealing with what is likely to be the biggest corruption scandal to hit Quebec and the other involving police spying on journalists.
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The Liberal Party of Quebec fundraising machine is embroiled in a corruption scandal involving privatization of government property management. Radio-Canada’s Enquête program has uncovered a real estate scheme where private contractors were used to run buildings, but government officials overseeing the privatization got kickbacks. The contracts to manage public assets are extremely lucrative to the private sector and a type of privatization that is difficult to reverse. As with other forms of privatization of government assets, it is always more costly to do lease-back agreements. In this case, there is the added cost of paying-off government cronies.
The Liberal Party corruption scandal was almost overshadowed by the release of an investigation into police spying on journalists. Adding insult to injury, it seems as though every time the Montreal or Quebec police force spokesperson made a statement, an expose is released showing yet another journalist was targeted for surveillance. At this point, it is hard to keep count.
• Surveillance of La Presse reporter a ‘serious attack on freedom of the press in Canada’
• 6 reporters spied on by Quebec provincial police
• Quebec police spying scandal widens: 5 years of call logs and another journalist