‘The person who did it is getting away,’ says Chomedey MNA, seeking a deeper investigation

On Friday afternoon last week as officials with the Quebec Liberal Party were taking the last steps to acclaim Charles Milliard as the PLQ’s new leader, Chomedey MNA Sona Lakhoyan Olivier was at her Samson Blvd. riding office contemplating the dramatic and cascading chain of events that briefly overturned her life and nearly overwhelmed the Liberals.

Following allegations of allegedly incriminating text messages exchanged during the leadership campaign of the Quebec Liberal Party, the PLQ launched an investigation whose conclusions were released by the party last week.

J de M published text messages

The PLQ mandated retired Quebec Superior Court judge Jacques Fournier to investigate after the Journal de Montréal published text messages last November suggesting that some PLQ members who had voted for Pablo Rodriguez in the party’s leadership race might have received cash payments.

Rodriguez resigned following the debacle over Saint-Laurent PLQ MNA Marwah Rizqy’s firing of her chief of staff. A report also in the Journal claimed that around 20 donors to Rodriguez’s leadership campaign received envelopes containing $500 in cash to reimburse their donations during a fundraising event in April.

Some of the media reports, discredited by the Fournier investigation’s findings, implicated Lakhoyan Olivier, as well as Fabre CAQ MNA Alice Abou-Khalil, as having been the source of the text messages. Some of the media reports speculated that Abou-Khalil was on the verge of crossing the National Assembly floor to the Liberals.

Texts fabricated, judge concluded

As a result of the doubts raised, Lakhoyan Olivier was expelled from the PLQ caucus last December, although the Fournier report’s conclusions could lead to her being reintegrated into the party. The report concluded the text messages at the heart of the controversy did not come from Lakhoyan Olivier, nor from anyone associated with her.

The investigation established that the text messages were fabricated and manipulated, and that the analysis and electronic evidence clearly show that they did not originate from Lakhoyan Olivier’s devices or those of her associates.

“The evidence confirms that there was no technical possibility of attributing these messages to the MNA or to individuals associated with her,” reads a statement issued last week by Lakhoyan Olivier’s office.

“The findings of the investigation also show that Ms. Lakhoyan Olivier, like other individuals who were associated with or targeted by the interpretation of the messages, were victims of malicious manipulation aimed at damaging their personal, professional and political reputations, as well as those of the institutions involved.”

‘They want us out,’ she speculates

In spite of the ensuing province-wide media attention, Lakhoyan Olivier believes (on a purely speculative level) that the fake text messages probably originated locally. “These are people who are involved in politics in Laval, Chomedey and Fabre, who have an eye on these seats – they want us out,” she said in an interview late last week with The Laval News.

She said she still feels as if she’s aboard the emotional roller coaster she was riding for months, until the release of Fournier’s report last week. Still, she learned a very hard lesson about the life of a politician.

“I tell you, this is not fair, because it’s a dirty political game,” Lakhoyan Olivier said, her characteristic cheerfulness giving way momentarily to tearfulness.

“I did not expect to see this in Canada or the province of Quebec – not at all,” added Lakhoyan Olivier who was born in Lebanon. However, what she wants to see now is a more thorough investigation leading to the individuals who created the fabricated text messages.

PLQ also dumped Ouellette

“They cleared my name and I was really relieved,” she said. “But the person who did it is getting away with it right now.”

The riding of Chomedey, which has been a Quebec Liberal bastion as long as anyone can remember, has seen its sitting Liberal MNA excluded from the PLQ caucus more than once in recent years.

Former Liberal MNA Guy Ouellette, was expelled from the Liberal caucus in 2018 after it was alleged he had leaked classified information to the Coalition Avenir Québec, who were then in opposition in the National Assembly.

Ouellette sat as in independent until the end of his last term in 2022. Lakhoyan Olivier said she fully understands that, for the good of the Quebec Liberal Party, it was necessary to suspend her from the caucus until her name had been cleared. “It was protocol, which was fine with me,” she said.

Wants to run again for Liberals

With the next provincial election tentatively scheduled for October 5, Lakhoyan Olivier, who was first elected in 2022, said she is interested in seeking a second term – preferably with the Quebec Liberals.

But in the meantime, UPAC (Unité permanente anticorruption) as well as the Quebec Director General of Elections (DGEQ) have opened investigations of their own and Lakhoyan Olivier is waiting before she announces her decision.

When asked whether she might consider running as an independent if she were unable to run for the Liberals, she replied without hesitation, “No, I don’t see that at all. I’d love to be with the Liberal Party of Quebec.”