Marie-Louise Tardif does not close the door to continue “Le Nouvelliste”
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Karoline Boucher The Canadian Press “Very happy” to return to the CAQ team on Wednesday, Marie-Louise Tardif told journalists that she had “[her] version” of the facts reported by the Trois-Rivières daily.
The MNA for Laviolette–Saint-Maurice, Marie-Louise Tardif, has not ruled out suing the daily Le Nouvelliste, which last month reported the remarks that earned her an exclusion from the caquiste caucus.
” We'll see. There may be a sequel, “said the elected Mauritian on Wednesday, when questioned about it a few minutes before being officially reinstated in the caucus of the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ). The day before, the Director of Criminal and Penal Prosecutions (DPCP) had cleared Ms. Tardif, because he saw no “reasonable prospect of conviction given the evidence gathered”.
The MP, who is serving her second term in the National Assembly, was under investigation by the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) for threats she allegedly made against an ex-employee in the middle of a courtroom, at the end of February. According Le Nouvelliste, Ms. Tardif would then have whispered to him that she was going to “embark on [his] case”, after the said employee had testified in a case opposing the MP to her former constituency office manager, Marc Léopold Fortin .
“You weren't there”
“Very happy” to return to the CAQ team on Wednesday, Ms. Tardif told reporters that she had “[her] version” of the facts reported by the Trois-Rivières daily. “I can't control what people say and what people think. And you weren't there. There were very few people,” she said.
“Who told you I said that? she added, before specifying that she did not deny having pronounced them.
Joined by Le Devoir on Wednesday, the editor-in-chief of Nouvelliste , Stéphan Frappier, maintained that his team had “done their journalistic work by reporting the comments that were made in court and by covering the complaint of a former employee and the investigation which was subsequently carried out by the Sûreté du Québec”.
Ms. Tardif had attracted covetousness when she was temporarily excluded from the government caucus in early March. The Conservative Party of Quebec had even pointed out that it was “present” to welcome him. Then, on Tuesday, following the DPCP's decision, Prime Minister François Legault indicated that his MP would “probably” return to the CAQ team.
