Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois and her husband Claude Blanchet in Beaupre, Que., September 4, 2012. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot
January 22, 2014 - 7:17 AM
DAVOS, Switzerland - Premier Pauline Marois says her husband never had a deal with the Quebec Federation of Labour to protect that union's interests and thwart a potential corruption inquiry.
Marois also says she was never pressured by the federation's directors to stop a public inquiry into the construction industry from ever taking place.
In a wiretap played on Tuesday at the Charbonneau Commission, two union executives are overheard talking in 2009 about applying pressure to the Parti Quebecois to make sure an inquiry doesn't proceed.
Marois was leader of the Opposition at the time and was referred to in the wiretap by her first name by then-union president Michel Arsenault.
Arsenault also mentions having a deal with "Blanchet," a reference to Marois' husband, Claude Blanchet, a former director at the labour federation's Solidarity Fund.
Marois said the union brass were informed quickly that her party intended to push for a public inquiry and added the relationship her husband had with the union was strictly business. She was speaking today in Davos, Switzerland, where she is attending the World Economic Forum.
The Opposition Liberals and the Coalition for Quebec's Future have expressed concern about the type of influence the union may have had on Marois.
News from © The Canadian Press, 2014