By Geoff Agombar
Local Journalism Initiative
Alain Déry, a municipal councillor in Bolton-Est councillor, recently made headlines after a Commission municipale de Québec (CMQ). Decision on Oct. 5 accepted his guilty plea on five ethical violations. He was punished with a 100-day suspension.
But Déry was going to be on the ballot when voters head to the polls for municipal elections just weeks later. Surprisingly, re-election could void the 100-day suspension after just one month, and Déry could be seated on council again after serving only a third of his suspension.
According to elections.qc.ca, Déry has withdrawn his candidacy and will not stand for re-election after all.
Nevertheless, the story sparks questions about whether and which candidates currently on the ballot have current or past cases before the CMQ.
Ethics citations and decisions are available to the public via a searchable online database on the CMQ website.
Sifting through the available records, it was possible to identify 23 case numbers related to the 118 municipalities that comprise the Eastern Townships region, between 2013 and 2021.
These 23 cases involved 19 different elected officials in 15 municipalities. Among those, only four involve incumbent candidates running in the upcoming November municipal elections.
