Former Quebec justice minister Jacques Dupuis wanted Premier Jean Charest to be informed of the final candidates for judiciary posts, Dupuis' former chief of staff told the Bastarache Commission on Wednmesday.
Pierre Paquin told the inquiry into the appointment of judges that he forwarded information on the candidates to Chantal Landry, who looked after all government appointments for Charest, on orders from Dupuis.
"My minister told me how it works," Paquin said. "He told me, ‘We have to consult the premier.'"
Paquin, who was also chief of staff for Dupuis' predecessor Kathleen Weil, said the same procedure was in force under her as well.
Last week, Charest defended himself for modifying the process of judge appointments so he could receive the files of the candidates, something that is not called for by law.
Paquin said there are other steps in the appointment process that are not necessarily written into the law either.
Dupuis, who left the government in August, testified at the Bastarache Commission on Wednesday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the commission's spokesman Guy Versailles announced that Michel Bastarache, the head of the commission, will not call on Marc Bellemare's wife Lu Chan Khuong to testify about how she found a copy of the former justice minister's datebook on a floppy disk.
The digital datebook seemingly confirms Bellemare's claim that he had a meeting with Charest in September, 2003 that he was being pressured by Liberal fundraisers to name certain people as judges.
Charest denies that such a meeting ever took place.
Bellemare's lawyers said when presenting the disk to the commission that Chan Kuong could testify if Bastarache deemed it to be important.
"The commissioner and the prosecutors simply decided that they didn't need to hear from her," Versailles said.
