MONTREAL — Quebec media mogul Pierre Karl Peladeau says he will challenge a court ruling nearly one month after he pleaded guilty to breaking provincial electoral law, posting on Facebook Monday that he had ignored the consequences for Quebecor Inc.
The Quebecor CEO and former Parti Quebecois leader pleaded guilty July 10 to a violation of the Election Act after he personally reimbursed a $137,000 debt racked up by his campaign during the sovereigntist party’s leadership race in 2015. The legislation requires campaign debts to be repaid mainly through public donations.
In a message posted to his Facebook page Monday night, Peladeau said his guilty plea could jeopardize Quebecor’s ability to do business with the province due to anti-corruption rules that bar companies with executives convicted under the act from bidding on public contracts.
“It has become essential to see things through a perspective of fairness, as much for Quebecor as for its thousands of employees and its clients and partners who were, and still are, completely outside of my choice to get involved in active politics, of my family situation that forced my departure and of my personally reimbursing my campaign debt,” Peladeau wrote.
Noting he had voted for the legislation to combat collusion and corruption, the businessman insisted he had “obviously never committed any acts” that would fall under that label.
“I never engaged in fraudulent electoral practices, practices for which this law was established. Quite the contrary. I was transparent and I paid my debts. However, the future of thousands of dollars in contractual commitments, ranging from telecom services contracts to production and broadcasting programs…could become uncertain in the future,” he said in the nearly 1,000-word Facebook post.
“The Quebec Treasury Board and its president…as well as the premier have the power to declare an exception to the automatic and unqualified application of the Act,” Peladeau added.
Quebecor stated Tuesday that public contracts make up “a very small proportion” of its revenue and have “no material impact on the corporation’s profitability.”
“We are confident that the matter will be settled in the near future without restricting the corporation’s activities or its public sector clients,” the Montreal-based company said in a release.
Celebrity businessman Kevin O’Leary ran up a $529,000 debt during his 2015 Conservative leadership bid, according to Elections Canada, whose rules prevent candidates from pouring more than $25,000 into their own campaign.
Elections Canada rejected a petition from the former “Dragons’ Den” star to let him pay off the debt personally.