Former CAQ aide Julie Nadeau sentenced after pleading guilty to fraud, forgery and perjury

The logo for the Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC) is seen during a press conference on Tuesday, November 9, 2021 in Quebec City. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jacques Boissinot

Former political attaché Julie Nadeau, who worked for former Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) MNA Claude Surprenant, has pleaded guilty to fraud, forgery and perjury, following an investigation by the province's anti-corruption agency, Unité permanente anticorruption (UPAC).

She received a 15-month suspended prison sentence, a three-year probation order and a $2,400 fine, according to a UPAC press release issued on Tuesday.

UPAC recounts that between August 2014 and December 2015, Nadeau, who was in charge of accounting for Surprenant's constituency office, diverted sums totalling more than $8,000 from the bank account of the Groulx constituency MNA's office to her personal account.

The UPAC investigation also showed that Nadeau had submitted falsified medical documents in order to benefit from an extended work stoppage, between February and December 2016.

After being dismissed by Surprenant, she initiated proceedings before the labour tribunal, believing she had been dismissed without just and sufficient cause.

During the trial, in sworn testimony between 2018 and 2021, Nadeau repeatedly perjured herself, claiming to hold a bachelor's degree in law, followed by a multidisciplinary bachelor's degree and a certificate in law. UPAC reported that, after verification, Nadeau holds no university degree.

On Feb. 23, 2022, the tribunal concluded that Nadeau's misconduct was serious and had broken the bond of trust between her and the MNA.

As for Surprenant, he was elected MNA for Groulx, in the Lower Laurentians, in 2014, and sat as an independent from January 24, 2017, when he was ousted from the CAQ caucus due to irregularities in his spending.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Nov. 14, 2023.