Marie Josee Lapointe

Justice Normand Glaude hand-picked his inquiry staff.  The notion of an inquiry operating independent of the government essentially demands that he have free reign over who he hires to assist him.  Assuming for a moment that Justice Glaude and this inquiry are in actuality free of any real or perceived conflicts and operating independent of the government, it would reflect poorly if, for example, he were then obliged to retain staff screened and hired by the Attorney General.

So, the staff hired by Justice Glaude are those whom he presumably determined have the qualities, background and experience to do what he, the commissioner, believes must be done to meet his mandate.

One of the first, if not the first, staffers chosen by Glaude to assist him in the coming months was Marie-Josee Lapointe.

Marie-Josee Lapointe was on the job within days of Glaude’s appointment, and in short order was attempting to do damage control, responding to questions regarding factual information about the judge’s Cornwall roots, his relationship to two Glaude brothers who came forward with sex abuse allegations, and his tenure with the Ontario Police Commission with slight variations of ‘we don’t respond to rumors.’

It was this sort of PR work that raised question about Marie-Josee.  Who, after all, would dismiss as rumour the established fact that Justice Glaude’s family is rooted in the Cornwall area? Or who would dismiss as rumour the fact that he is indeed related to the Glaude brothers? And, for that matter,  who would be foolish enough to say the judge’s tenure with the OPC is rumour when in fact it was publicized in the press release announcing his appointment?

So, that raised the question:  who is Marie Josee Lapointe? 

 In short order that became: why did Justice Glaude pick Lapointe?    

And that eventually became: what the heck is going on here? 

Who is Marie-Josee?   

Marie Josee is a politically well-connected lady who has held high-profile positions with Benoit Bouchard (cabinet minister during the Progressive Conservative government of Brian Mulroney), former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister Kim Campbell, and Conservative MP Andre Bachand (Bachand bolted from the Conservative party on the heels of the Scott Brison defection to the Liberals after the Tory-Alliance merger.  Bachand, however sat as an independent. 

All those connections are Conservative.    

However there seem to be direct and indirect connections to the Liberal part as well.  For example, Marie Josee is the daughter of Liberal Senator Lapointe, and she was hired as chief of communications for the newly amalgamated city of Ottawa with Bob Chiarelli as Mayor (Chiarelli was a former Liberal member of the provincial parliament and, as Mayor of Ottawa, a backer of current Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty. )     

Lapointe occupied the City of Ottawa post during the controversial tenure of city manager Bruce Thom, the first city manager of the new Ottawa who became enmeshed in the city hall credit and budget scandal and was given his marching orders – with a whopping $800,000 severance package.