(Quebec) An opposition councilor is accusing an elected official from Bruno Marchand's team of intimidating him in the hallways of Quebec City Hall two weeks ago by garlanding him and then notably giving him a chest injection.
Published at 1:50 p.m.
“If we tolerate this, what’s the next step? Where are we going? This is a chest shot, what will it be next time? A hit ? » asked the councilor of the Chute-Montmorency-Seigneurial district, Stevens Mélançon, at a press conference on Thursday.
Mayor Marchand's team has to react in the afternoon. But this clash is the latest to show a deteriorating climate between elected community leaders in the capital.
The city's general manager also called representatives of the four political parties represented in the city council to an emergency meeting on Thursday at 3 p.m. “to take stock of the safety and working climate within the political teams in the city hall.”
The day before, Wednesday, another elected opposition representative denounced a toxic climate in the town hall. Alicia Despins even filed a complaint with the Quebec Municipal Commission. She said the straw that broke the camel's back was an altercation between two elected officials. She referred, without elaborating, to the incident denounced by Mr Mélançons on Thursday.
This whole matter would have arisen from certain comments and “likes” that Mr. Mélançons made on the Facebook statuses of the former adviser to the mayor's party, Quebec Strong and Proud (QFF). The advisor in question complained about this and Mr. Mélançons decided to delete these “likes” and these comments.
But according to the elected opposition representative, councilor Steeve Verret from the QFF approached him at the end of the municipal council meeting on February 6th.
“Mr. Verret starts verbally intimidating me. He says Facebook has to stop… I tell him: listen, if you can't stand the heat of the kitchen, don't go to the kitchen,” said the Équipe Priority Québec elected official.
The sound grew louder, then Mr. Verret allegedly punched him in the chest. “It’s Chester exactly. He entered me two inches from my face. That's what I said, it's bullying. »
Please apologize to the mayor
Quebec initially filed an access to information request to obtain videotape from a camera at City Hall. The party also demanded a letter of apology from Mr Verret to bury the matter and move on. The apology letter never came and the second opposition therefore decided to clarify the matter on Thursday.
“This behavior was tolerated by Bruno Marchand’s office because the apology letter never came,” accuses Mr. Mélançon.
Its leader Patrick Paquet demands an apology from the mayor of Quebec. “They are the ones who brag about doing politics differently, but they do politics just like everyone else, they don't do anything better than anyone else,” he said. We demand decency and more seriousness in the local council. »
However, Mr Paquet clarified that he had never experienced attempts at intimidation from Bruno Marchand. ” Never. We'll sort this out. »
Members of the second opposition were asked about their shared responsibility in the toxic climate, be it through publications on Facebook or through statements.
Recently, to denounce the price paid by the city for an event organized by BLEUFEU – which notably hosts the Quebec Summer Festival – an elected official from Équipe Priority Québec recently confirmed that the wife of a member of the Marchand administration worked for BLEUFEU.
“No, this is politics. “Intimidation is when you go to Chester to a councilor,” replied the head of the Quebec Priority Team. “Not everyone can be in politics. You have to have a tough rind. »