A Quebec court judge is accusing the former head of the province’s anti-corruption unit of derailing a high-profile fraud trial by orchestrating a system of controlled leaks to the media.
Judge André Perreault says in a heavily redacted court document that Robert Lafrenière was behind sensitive leaks to journalists in order to pressure the government at the time to renew his mandate as head of the anti-corruption squad.
The revelations are included in a 2020 court ruling involving ex-deputy premier Nathalie Normandeau, who was granted a stay of proceedings due to unreasonable delays in her fraud case.
The information was only released this week because the 81-page court decision was kept under a publication ban that media organizations were able to have lifted….