[ISL] On a supposed scandal involving Philippe Couillard, Anticosti island, oil, and Arthur Porter

[rfmcdonald]

Postmedia News' Philip Authier wrote ("Québec opposition claim premier killed Anticosti oil exploration because of personal feelings for island" about an odd attempt by the Québec opposition to raise a scandal.

The debate over the future of oil exploration on Anticosti Island took a turn for the personal Wednesday when the opposition alleged Premier Philippe Couillard’s passion for fishing and the outdoors is clouding his judgment.

And the Coalition Avenir Québec is using comments made by disgraced hospital executive Arthur Porter, who died last summer, to back up its theory.

In a bizarre twist in the controversy over possible oil and gas exploration on the largely unspoiled Gulf of St. Lawrence island, CAQ house leader François Bonnardel summoned the media to speculate on what he thinks might be motivating Couillard’s zeal to keep development at bay.

Brandishing Porter’s two-year old autobiography, The Man Behind the Bow Tie, Bonnardel read the passage on Page 214 in which Porter says he and Couillard shared a log cabin on the island while on a fishing trip there.

[. . .]

The former head of the McGill University Health Centre, Porter was charged with multiple counts of fraud and corruption in connection with the construction of the $1.3-billion superhospital that opened last spring. He died June 30, 2015 while he was detained in Panama.

Couillard, a former health minister, and Porter were briefly associated in business during Couillard’s years outside of politics. Couillard’s political opponents routinely dredge up the past connection including a now famous photo of him and Porter together on a fishing trip.

On Wednesday, the CAQ baited the fishing theory again – this time to attack Couillard’s staunch opposition to developing the island, first expressed at December’s Paris climate change conference.