"You will never be prime minister"

(Quebec) To hear the Deputy Prime Minister, Genevieve Guilbault, everything is going well in the best of all worlds at the Public Security cabinet. On the show Everybody talks about itTwo weeks ago, the minister denied without hesitation information about her difficult relationship with her political employees. Two were thanked last summer, another had quit her job in April, all were veterans from PQ cabinets. A problem of "competence", had said publicly M^me Guilbault.

Posted on October 16, 2019 at 5:00 am

Denis Lessard
The Press

The Sunday broadcast often plays on the margin, between the information and the variety, the border is difficult to draw. When the host gives his microphone to the politician, she just has to deny the information that does not suit her, and we move on to another call, here to another guest.

Gold, Press got her hands on an email sent by a lawyer to her ex-boss, M^me Guilbault. M^e Jacqueline Aube had left Public Safety and had been working for two weeks in the office of Minister Responsible for the Economy, Marie-Eve Proulx. Clearly written in the act of anger, the missive casts a harsh light on the relationship that M maintained^me Guilbault with the staff. Joined yesterday, M^e Aube limited himself to specifying that it was a personal message, which was not destined to end up in the public square.

On TV, M^me Guilbault had contented himself with denying having made derogatory remarks towards his staff; gold, like M^e Aube, other people who worked with the minister said she swore frequently, and often in the direction of political opponents. On one occasion, Chief of Staff Alain Lavigne also reminded him that his boss, Francois Legault, was also from the Parti Quebecois.

Before being hired by Public Safety during the formation of the Legault government in October 2018, M^me Aube already had a long history in politics. She had been to the cabinet of Justice with Paul Begin under Jacques Parizeau and Lucien Bouchard. Bernard Landry took it on his team when he became prime minister. After a stint at Investissement Quebec, she returned to the service, with Stephane Bergeron, head of Public Security under Pauline Marois.

"I have worked with a number of ministers, including a prime minister, and I have never seen such an uncomfortable character, such profound lack of judgment and disrespect as yours," M continues.^e Aube in his message. When Press had revealed the existence of the email, the press officer of M^me Guilbault, Jean-Francois Del Torchio, had tried to discredit his former colleague by claiming that it had been transmitted well after midnight to the minister. But that's wrong. The email was sent in the evening. "The minister will not be available to comment," said Del Torchio yesterday. "Everything has been said about it, it's past," he insists.

M^e Aube had put in "true copy" the lawyer Claude Laflamme, assistant chief of staff at Francois Legault. On several occasions, she emphasized the good judgment of Francois Legault. But it was not enough. The Prime Minister's office had her dismissed from her position as counselor at Proulx, the next day, April 26. She received a very general letter confirming the revocation of her contract three days later.

The long e-mail is a well-deserved indictment of M^me Guilbault. Unparalleled communicator, the young minister, in private, did not hide his dislike for unions, environmentalists and even Montrealers, had confirmed several sources to Press.

"Nasty blunder"

"Nasty blunder that you made with the powers of the police," continues the email, a reminder of a rare misspeak public minister. She had argued that the police could enforce the ban on wearing headscarves for female teachers. "Bravo to your PM (Prime Minister) for giving you (handing over) for you. This should put you in perspective of your non-political experience, "she adds. The lawyer finds it incredible that any Minister of Public Safety,^me Guilbault does not know that the police intervene only in front of "criminal or penal" gestures.

"You should have done your homework and read the Q & A (questions and answers) prepared by your colleague Jolin-Barrette (much better than you elsewhere) who answered police questions. Your Prime Minister had read it !!! The ex-employee writes. M^me Guilbault had brushed aside his colleague's document.

The perfect public benefits of M^me Guilbault hide a more vulnerable personality, confide other sources. She thinks more in terms of the message, the "lines of press", which she absorbs with astonishing ease, than of content. The idea of ​​a "green book" to highlight what is wrong with police forces in Quebec would have been clearly conveyed to him by Francois Legault's cabinet.

Ironically, Minister Guilbault also wrote incendiary, embarrassing emails when she was the spokesperson for the Office of the Coroner. Eloise Dupuis, a Jehovah of Levis witness, had died at the time of her delivery; she refused a blood transfusion. The Canadian Charter of Rights ensures that these decisions, dictated by religious beliefs, must be respected. M^me Guilbault had plagued an email made public by an access to information request. "I can not believe we are involved in this, yet it is a simple – albeit extremely shocking – manifestation of the excesses of our sacrosanct charters, which place individual freedoms in front of the collective well-being. When asked to comment, she had downplayed those e-mails sent to colleagues, "taken out of context."

Maybe M^me Will Guilbault have a little empathy when she rereads the prediction of her former legal advisor Jacqueline Aube. "Poor you, you will never be prime minister! "