QUEBEC - Former Quebec deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau is suing a media outlet for $722,500 for what she calls unfair dismissal.
Cogeco Media suspended Normandeau without pay in March when she was arrested on various fraud-related charges. She was fired in early April.
Normandeau says in her lawsuit filed today she was let go based on accusations and that she should have benefited from the presumption of innocence.
She is seeking $572,500 in lost wages because she had a contract until August 2019 and $150,000 in various damages.
Normandeau was one of seven people arrested in mid-March in a scheme in which political financing and gifts were allegedly exchanged for lucrative government contracts between 2000 and 2012.
She served as a Liberal member of the legislature from 1998 to 2011 and held key cabinet positions including municipal affairs, natural resources and Canadian intergovernmental affairs as well as being deputy premier from 2007 to 2011.
