Contempt for Parliament

 

"Every week, my team reached out to the person in charge of Simon Marcil's riding office, so I can assure you that there has been a large number of citizens that have been assisted and contacts with municipalities despite the Member of Parliament's absence." 

"We made sure that all services were still being offered through the riding office."

There are rules that surround all these expenses, and all I can tell you is that he files his expenses to the House of Commons administration like any other MP. The administration then judges if the expenses are reimbursed after evaluating them."

"So all expenses that were disclosed publicly were determined to be in line with the MP expense rules. It's not up to me as the whip to judge those expenses."

Bloc Quebecois Whip Claude de Bellefeuille

"That decision is very strange, very very strange. He is an MP, he has obligations to his constituents. And part of that obligation is to be direct about what's happening with your situation."

"If you disappear for one year, it becomes a problem for representative democracy."

Mike Medeiros, Canadian electoral politics expert, University of Amsterdam

"The public assumes that if they're paying someone's salary, that the individual will be actively working for them. There's also an issue with transparency."

"If an MP stops working without announcing that they have a health issue, it creates space for a lot of speculation that is hurtful to everyone involved."

Louis Massicotte, retired professor, Universite Laval, expert in Canadian politics

Simon Marcil

"On December 16, the city and Exo [a local commuter train authority] announced the opening of the new Mirabel train station next month. This is a very important local file that involved an investment from the federal government."

"But Simon Marcil was nowhere to be seen. Instead, a Liberal MP from a neighbouring riding showed up."

"I've always gotten the impression from Marcil that he doesn't care about the work at all. It's interesting that you call me now, because I've been wondering over the past few days where our MP has been. How can a two-term MP like him just disappear?"

Mirabel Mayor Jean Bouchard

The Bloc Quebecois was formed as a national political party whose aim was to achieve separation between Quebec and the rest of Canada by promoting a Quebec-based separatist party, the Parti Quebecois. Their purpose was to succeed in having Quebec vote in a referendum overwhelmingly for Quebec sovereignty, total separation from Canada. That vote did take place, and by the slimmest of margins the 'non' vote won over the 'oui' vote and Quebec to this day remains within confederation. And while the popularity of the Parti Quebecois and its vision of separation has fallen in popularity, there will always be a disgruntled element within the French-speaking community in Quebec.

 

For years the Bloc, virulently separatist, was the leading opposition party in the House of Commons. Canadians, in other words, were paying the parliamentary salaries of a political group elected to public office to represent Quebec's interest in Parliament, that actively worked toward separation. Breaking up the country high on their agenda , in point of fact the only item on the agenda. Their presence in Parliament was of a party completely disinterested in the rest of Canada, active and involved only where such action and involvement focused on and benefited Quebec.

 

For decades, the wealthier provinces of Canada financially supported Quebec through transfer of equalization payments, a program designed to ensure that all the populations of Canada received equal provincial benefits. That was accomplished by extracting from wealthy provinces taxes to support less prospering counterparts.  Quebec was able to provide far greater benefits for its citizens than any other province as a result of those equalization payments, but it viewed this as one of its unique entltlements of which it has many, including partial autonomy. It calls itself a nation, its parks are designed 'national'.

 

And one of the elected parliamentarians it sent to the House of Commons is bleeding the Canadian taxpayer for a handsome salary for non-appearance at his workplace serving those people who sent him to parliament. Under current COVID distancing, he need only appear through remote connection. Bloc Quebecois MP Simon Marcil has been on unspecified medical leave from his duties in the House, an absence never made clear to those who voted him into office. He was originally elected in 2015 in the Greater Montreal Area riding of Mirabel. He collects his full salary as a MP of $182,600 along with expenses.

Since January of 2020 he has been on medical leave. Based on a doctor's note requiring a month of medical leave. Thereafter a new note was provided monthly to extend his leave on a dozen occasions leading to a year's absence. No one outside Parliament was aware of this little discrepancy, not those he represents, not the media. Until someone was curious enough to look into the matter. The party chose to say nothing, just to cover for their absent member, protecting his 'privacy'.

There have been other parliamentarians who have  gone on leave due to medical reasons and they have taken steps to announce those reasons, a reasonable enough expectation for someone voted into office on the premise they will devote themselves to representing the interests of the constituents who voted them into office for that very purpose. The mayor of the city of Mirabel who had himself announced that due to cancer treatment he would miss work for several months, was shocked by the MP's absence in the riding.

He had been privy to rumours of the medical leave taken by his MP but no one had advised him of the absence despite that there were times when he required assistance from MPs in neighbouring ridings on certain files with the federal government in the absence of his own MP. Unnamed former and current Bloc MPs claimed surprise at their party's decision to remain silent about the MP's absence. "I don't even know what Simon Marcil looks like", one of them admitted. They agreed between themselves that prior to medical leave the MP appeared to have scant interest in his job, describing him as 'lazy'.

 

While on medical leave, Marcil claimed $14,150 in expenses for his secondary residence at a remote village of 370 inhabitants in cottage country an hour north of Ottawa. House of Commons rules permit MPs who own secondary residences used as an alternate residence when parliamentarians find it convenient to work from Ottawa, are given allowance to claim an accommodation rate of $50 daily. He submitted that claim, despite not appearing in Parliament, remaining absent on sick leave.

The man is obviously short on ethics and enthusiasm for his obligations for which he is handsomely remunerated, but big on his entitlement to his entitlements as he interprets them, even those running afoul of the rules.