In another surprising revelation at the Bastarache Commission, Papineau MNA and Transport Minister Norman MacMillan admitted Tuesday that he spoke to former justice minister Marc Bellemare about the nomination of Marc Bisson as a Quebec Court judge.
MacMillan testified at the commission on the nomination of judges Tuesday that he is a friend of Guy Bisson - who is also a key political organizer for MacMillan in his riding - and that the possibility of Bisson's son's nomination to the bench came up in November of 2003.
"He told me how proud he would be if his son became a judge," MacMillan said.
When asked if Guy Bisson specifically asked him to intervene on behalf of his son, MacMillan said, "He didn't need to tell me what to do."
MacMillan also admitted that he regularly received calls from lawyers in his riding who are being considered for a position on the bench, but that he never intervened on their behalf because he didn't know them.
However, in the case of Marc Bisson, MacMillan said he spoke with Bellemare on two occasions regarding his candidacy for a position as a judge, and that it was perfectly normal for him to do so in the context of an MNA intervening on behalf of someone from his riding.
Charest's office logs show Liberal fundraiser Charles Rondeau was in the office nearly 20 times in seven months beginning in the summer of 2003 after the Liberals won the election.
Patronage appointments
Rondeau said in his testimony Tuesday his job was to provide the names for a raft of patronage appointments such as the boards of Crown corporations.
"I don't think there's anything bad about it," he said. "It's the work of someone who's been in a party a long time and knows a lot of people."
Rondeau admitted to telling Marc Bellemare that an acquaintance wanted to be the chief justice of the Court of Quebec, and when he ran into Bellemare, he relayed the message.
A few days later, testified Rondeau, Bellemare told him the acquaintance would be offered the job of deputy chief.
Hard evidence
The comments came one day after Bellemare's former deputy minister Georges Lalande gave explosive testimony backing up the allegations of influence-peddling made by his former boss.
Lalande's testimony Monday provided hard evidence in support of Bellemare's claims that he was pressured by Liberal fundraisers to name certain friends of the party as judges.
But the lawyers for Bellemare, Premier Jean Charest, the Liberal Party of Quebec and the provincial government each had their chance to challenge Lalande's claims Tuesday.
Providing a backdrop to Tuesday's hearings is another report from Montreal daily La Presse based on the newspaper acquiring a copy of the sign-in book for Charest's office.
The book, Tuesday's report states, contains no mention of a crucial meeting Bellemare says he had with Charest on Sept. 3, 2003, when he claims he informed the premier of the pressure he was feeling from Liberal fundraisers Franco Fava and Charles Rondeau.
It was over the course of that two-hour meeting that Bellemare claims Charest told him to accommodate the requests of Fava and Rondeau to name Bisson, Line Gosselin-Despres and Michel Simard as judges.
La Presse also reports that the sign-in book for Charest's office has no mention of Fava visiting during the time Bellemare was justice minister in 2003 and 2004.
The week promises to be a revealing one at the Bastarache Commission, with Fava, Rondeau and Charest all scheduled to testify.
