Liberal Party files complaint against Pierre Duchesne for Parti Québécois candidacy

It’s now been confirmed that Pierre Duchense will be running as the Parti Quebecois candidate in the riding of Borduas. It’s also been confirmed that the Quebec Liberal Party has lodged a formal complaint against the former Radio-Canada journalist to the Quebec Press Council as well as the Radio-Canada ombudsman based on Duchense’s decision to run.

Duchesne served as Radio-Canada’s legislature correspondent from 2005 up until June 15, when he announced his retirement, marking the end of 25 years with Radio-Canada.

But the relatively short time span in which Duchense went from journalist to politician has led to speculation that the former journalist was in talks with the PQ during his time as a legislative reporter, which would put him in a conflict of interest, as the Liberals' complaint lays out.

Duchesne maintains that he had no contact with any political parties prior to his departure from Radio-Canada.

Check out this OpenFile Montreal story for more on this story, including the fact that Duchesne is not the first (and likely not the last) journalist-turned-politican and this story for what happens if the Press Council finds that he was in a conflict of interest. (Spoiler alert: Not a whole lot.)