Quebec’s anti-corruption squad is launching an internal investigation into allegations former premier Jean Charest and former Liberal fundraiser Marc Bibeau were placed under surveillance as recently as last year.

According to documents obtained by TVA, both Charest and Bibeau were tracked by UPAC, with a focus on their travel outside of the country. The investigators requested information from the Canada Border Services Agency in January 2016 and also sought a list of the pair’s Canadian border crossings dating back to 2003.

Other information was also collected about the men’s families, personal banking and passports.

According to the report, UPAC also had plans to tap private conversations between Charest and Bibeau, though it’s unclear if that ever occurred.

After the revelations came to light Tuesday, UPAC Commissioner Robert Lafreniere said in a news release that an investigation will determine the origin of the transmission. 

"It is not in the common interest for documents and investigative material to be displayed in the public arena. This disclosure could have serious consequences as UPAC investigators are now subjected to unnecessary pressures that could hinder their work," underlined Commissioner Lafrenière

The surveillance on Charest and Bibeau was apparently triggered by a separate investigation that resulted in the arrest of former Liberal cabinet minister Nathalie Normandeau, who was Charest’s second-in-command.

Both investigations were linked to allegations that engineering and construction firms made illegal donations to the Liberal Party in exchange for government contracts between 2003 and 2012.

Neither Charest nor Bibeau have faced any charges.

Charest reacted to the claims Tuesday evening through his lawyer Gregory Larroque, saying, "I take note of the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions’ declaration stating that no file has been transmitted to them. I will make no other comments, if only to reaffirm that I have done nothing wrong." 

Leon Moubayed, a lawyer at the firm Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg, which represents Bibeau, also reacted in a statement, saying, "Our client is appalled that confidential information apparently obtained during an investigation, including personal information, was deliberately leaked to the media solely in order to damage his reputation, on the basis of conjecture."

Public Security Minister Martin Coiteux said the report raises questions about why sensitive information is being leaked to the media.

“When there is an investigation on any citizen, it is important for those involved in those investigations to maintain the integrity of those investigations,” he said.

Members of opposition parties denounced the Liberal Party and said Couillard still has much to answer for.

Parti Quebecois leader Jean-Francois Lisee said Quebecers “Cannot move on until and unless we get to the bottom of this affair,” adding, “What is extraordinarily frustrating for all Quebeckers is that we would like to go at the bottom of this affair and move on.”

Lisee said Quebecers are "frustrated" by "Liberal immunity" and that he wants to see Bibeau and Charest testify at a legislature committee.

"Mr. Charest and Mr. Bibeau did not take the stand, either publicly or privately, at the Charbonneau Commission (into corruption in the construction industry) and Quebecers want to get to the bottom of this," he said.

Coalition Avenir Quebec justice critic Simon Jolin-Barrette added that Couillard was a part of the government at the time of any suspicious activity on the part of Charest.

“When Premier Couillard says ‘I have nothing to do with that,’ wait a minute, because he was part of that,” said Jolin-Barrette. “He was the one elected in 2003 and named the biggest minister in Quebec, the health minister. We have serious concerns about what he said and also, he cannot say it’s an old bunch of people. It’s the same people in his government that were there before with Mr. Charest.”

Couillard did not take questions from reporters Tuesday, but in Question Period at the National Assembly, he tried to distance himself from the Charest government, telling the opposition parties they're living in the past.