Document reveals Jacques Daoust opposed the sale of RONA shares

CTV Montreal: Daoust pressured to lie: JdM A Journal de Montreal report alleges that the Couillard government pressured former cabinet minister Jacques Daoust to lie.

A political bombshell Wednesday morning, as the Journal de Montreal revealed in a report that the Couillard government pressured a cabinet minister to lie to the public.

Ex-Quebec Liberal cabinet minister Jacques Daoust wrote in a political document before his death last year he was opposed to the sale of Rona shares to U.S. interests in 2014.

The document, obtained by Quebecor Media, indicates Daoust was furious his own government wanted him to say publicly he agreed with the sale by Quebec's investment agency, when he did not.

Daoust wrote that the decision to authorize the sale was made by a senior staff member behind his back when he was economy minister.

Daoust said he was caught in a behind-the-scenes game between his chief of staff, Pierre Ouellet, and another person with more authority than a minister -- pointing a finger at Premier Philippe Couillard's then-chief of staff.

Sebastien Daoust, one of Daoust's sons, told Montreal radio station 98.5 FM Wednesday that some of the passages in the document were in keeping with what his father told him.

The younger Daoust added that while he talked about politics daily with his father, the former minister did not like to discuss the sale of the hardware chain.

Daoust felt betrayed

He said he felt betrayed by the party and his own staffover the deal, according to written statements he made to close associates.

In March 2016, Rona shareholders overwhelmingly approved the sale of the company to Lowe's, a U.S. renovation chain, as part of a $3.2-billion friendly bid announced two months earlier.

Doaust said he was against the sale when he first heard of the move in 2014, and felt Rona was a Quebec asset worth protecting from a foreign takeover. The province held a 10 per cent stake of the company – which Daoust was critical of selling.

Daoust was elected to the National Assembly in 2014 and named economy minister before he took the transport portfolio in January 2016.

He kept the position until he stepped down as a member of the legislature in August 2016 after he landed in hot water for his alleged role in Investissement Quebec's sale of 11 million Rona shares to Lowe's.

Daoust, who was head of the province's investment agency between 2006 and 2013, has always insisted he did not know about the sale until it was a done deal.

Liberals in damage-control mode

In Quebec City Wednesday, the Liberal Party was in damage-control, insisting Daoust didn’t have the power to stop the transaction anyway.

“If you look at the decision-making process within Investissment Quebec, they don't require the approval of the minister. They don’t and that has been specified by the Auditor General,” said economic development minister Dominique Anglade.

The opposition disagrees, saying the CAQ and PQ were fighting to keep Rona in Quebec hands, and are now accusing the Liberals of betraying one of their own in order to mislead Quebecers over the controversial sale of Rona.

“They should take responsibility for not defending Quebec's interests in key files, on the Rona files. He fronted his own minister on the issue of retaining Quebec control,” said PQ leader Jean-Francois Lisee.

The CAQ says Daoust was thrown under the bus by his own premier until Daoust resigned a few months later.

“Mr. Couillard is trying to convince us that it's the fault of Mr. Daoust. It's not true, it's not true,” said CAQ leader Francois Legault.

He died last August at the age of 69 after a stroke.

According to his children, he was haunted to the end by this final episode in his political life.

- With a report from CTV Montreal