Will Jean Charest’s scandal reignite the separatist debate?

If a current inquiry into judicial appointments brings Charest down, the separatist cause could be reborn

Quebec Premier Jean Charest is currently at the centre of a political firestorm that could have ramifications for the entire country. At an inquiry yesterday his former Justice Minister Marc Bellemare testified that in 2003 Charest pressured him to appoint three judges who had close ties to Franco Fava, a prominent Liberal fundraiser.

While Bellemare has given bombshell testimony about incriminating conversations he allegedly had with Charest, his own credibility isn’t assured. You have to “wonder why he did not resign and go public in order to protect the integrity of the system,” writes Globe and Mail blogger Norman Spector, instead of waiting so long to make the allegations. But in calling an inquiry into his own conduct Charest has given Bellemare a perfect platform from which to sling mud. Surely the premier “must have seen the danger of giving Marc Bellemare live television time to give a version of events at which there were no third-party witnesses.”

In the scandal “Quebec’s voting public (has) found yet another reason to be jaded and cynical” about the province’s political class, writes Martin Patriquin on macleans.ca. “It would be comical if the whole thing didn’t cost $6 million.” Patriquin also brings to light some pretty damning facts about what Bellemare’s been doing since leaving his post in 2004. Bellemare has run for mayor of Quebec City twice since then and evidently solicited Fava, the man he claims is deeply corrupt, for campaign funds. He also wrote an open letter to a Quebec magazine “describing Charest as a statesman of the first order.” Now he’s changed his tune.

The scandal may seem remote from the rest of Canada, but as the National Post’s Tasha Kheiriddin points out “if the provincial Liberal party brand becomes severely tarnished by this mess, much like the federal Liberals were after the Sponsorship Scandal,” the Parti Quebecois will gain and “Quebec could witness a separatist resurgence.” And for a “passionate federalist like Mr. Charest, that would be the worst – and most ironic - legacy imaginable.”