General

Police meet Quebec Lib leader; Couillard says questions were about party, not him

QUEBEC – Quebec Liberal Leader Philippe Couillard says police anti-corruption investigators came to his home to question him today.

He says they wanted to ask him about the Liberal party organization and practices — not about anything he might have done wrong.

Couillard says he’s not under investigation, and police only wanted to meet with him as head of the political institution.

He also says no current Liberal MNAs have been questioned by police.

But that’s as much as he’ll say. The Liberal leader says that at the end of the meeting, which lasted nearly an hour, he and police discussed what things he could and could not say without hampering their investigation.

The latest news comes just after revelations that the police raided the party’s Montreal headquarters during the summer.

Couillard says he’s still “very proud” of leading the Liberal party, which he says has achieved many great things over a 140-year history.

But he says it’s going through necessary changes, and anyone who did anything wrong will need to suffer the consequences of their actions.

Couillard pointed out that this police squad that visited him today was created by the last Liberal government. However, he conceded that it was a less than pleasant experience to find officers at his doorstep.

Quebec’s anti-corruption officers have met with different politicians, some of whom were later arrested and some who were simply met for questioning.

One of them, Montreal’s ex-interim mayor Michael Applebaum, said after meeting police that he was only helping with an investigation.

But Applebaum was later arrested and now faces corruption-related charges.

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