Opposition parties in Quebec City have accused Premier Christine Fréchette of a “witch hunt” following the dismissal of a civil servant.
On Thursday morning, the public broadcaster published an article in which Olivier Smith-Lauzon recounts losing his job after providing information to Radio-Canada regarding funds invested in companies such as Northvolt and Nemaska Lithium.
The issue came up in the National Assembly on Thursday. “Mr. Olivier Smith was internally criticizing the investment policies of Ms. Fréchette and the CAQ government. So, today, what can we take away from this? It’s Ms. Fréchette’s leadership style. It’s a witch hunt against sources,” said Monsef Derraji, the Liberal MNA for Nelligan, at a press briefing on Thursday.
Related:
The Parti Québécois (PQ) echoed this sentiment. “The government is hunting down whistleblowers. A whistleblower who provided information to the Auditor General. This week was marked by revelations we were already aware of but which were more serious than we thought regarding incompetence and a lack of prudence in the Northvolt case,” argued PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.
In a damning report released on Wednesday, Quebec’s Auditor General (VGQ), Christine Roy, criticized the CAQ government’s investments in the battery industry, stating that they were “poorly planned.” She added that “significant risks” had not been “sufficiently considered.”
“Yesterday’s VGQ report is devastating for the government. A shameless waste of public money in the battery sector with sloppy work. (…) So, kudos to the whistleblowers. We thank them,” said Solidarity member Alexandre Leduc.
The Radio-Canada article also mentions an investigation by the Permanent Anti-Corruption Unit (UPAC) regarding the leak of a document sent to the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ). It specifies that Smith-Lauzon was not the source of this leak.
On Dec. 10, 2025, Derraji displayed this document during an online press briefing. However, this video was subsequently removed from the National Assembly’s website at the government’s request.
“The Member of the National Assembly for Nelligan made sensitive information public in December that put several companies at risk. This information created a very delicate and problematic situation for several companies vis-à-vis their competitors. And it could even have led to insider trading, because some of these companies are publicly traded,” Fréchette explained during question period.
She added that the deputy minister of Economy contacted UPAC “given that this sensitive data had been made public.”
The government was bombarded with questions on the subject by the opposition in the Red Room on Thursday.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
