UPAC Commissioner Robert Lafreniere speaks to the media at a news conference Thursday, March 17, 2016 in Montreal. The anti-corruption squad arrested seven people including former ministers Nathalie Normandeau and Marc-Yvan Cote in connection with alleged fundraising activities.Ryan Remiorz/The Canadian Press
Last week, a former deputy provincial premier and various other high-flying former politicians were arrested and accused of corruption, conspiracy and breach of trust.
The charges came after a lengthy investigation that took place concurrently with a public inquiry into corruption that revealed a remarkable depth to the rot in the construction industry in the same province. People who had previously called the province the most corrupt in Canada celebrated.
But is Quebec really Canada's most bent province? What if it is just the only one where bribery, bid-rigging and other malfeasance have been most visibly and spectacularly exposed and tackled?
One can make a good case that, in fact, Quebec is the Canadian jurisdiction where the crooks are most likely to be caught.
It's tempting to be smug about Quebec and believe the corruption of public services there is unique and somehow worse than anywhere else. There's a term for that, though – convenient fiction.
Similarly malodorous whiffs occasionally emanate from provincial capitals in British Columbia and Ontario. There have been scandals in Alberta and parts of Atlantic Canada – in short, anywhere with a government.
Quebec is, however, the only province with a permanent anti-corruption task force, l'Unité permanente anti-corruption (UPAC). It is also the first to systematically target organized crime on a large scale and disrupt its activities. And its campaign financing rules are now the strictest in Canada.
It's true Quebec was at the centre of the federal sponsorship scandal. The all-or-nothing stakes of referendum politics led to rule-breaking on both sides of the national question.
And rarely do politicians as senior as Nathalie Normandeau, who served as deputy premier under former Liberal Premier Jean Charest, hear a police officer's heavy knock at the door.
But that should be taken as evidence that UPAC is truly unfettered (despite frequent speculation to the contrary).
People in other parts of Canada shouldn't shrug, or smirk, at the goings-on in Quebec. The better and more constructive idea is to push for similar watchdogs in other provinces. Canadians outside Quebec might be surprised at what they find.
Editor's note: An earlier digital version of this story incorrectly stated that Nathalie Normandeau served as deputy premier under Liberal Premier Philippe Couillard; however, she served as deputy premier under former Liberal Premier Jean Charest. This version has been corrected.