MONTREAL - Parti Quebecois Leader Pauline Marois and her husband have filed a $2-million lawsuit against a Montreal newspaper over an article it published about the construction of her opulent house on an island.
The defamation suit, filed late Friday in Quebec Superior Court, seeks $1 million in damages each from the paper's owners, CanWest MediaWorks Inc., and reporter William Marsden.
The article published last weekend raised questions about how Marois and her husband, businessman Claude Blanchet, obtained permission to build their multimillion dollar home on a suburban Montreal island.
"The article contains many highly defamatory lies and insinuations concerning Marois and Blanchet, which were published with the manifest goal of damaging their reputations,'' the lawsuit alleges.
The newspaper and Marsden have not filed a legal response and Gazette managing editor Raymond Brassard could not immediately be reached for comment.
None of the allegations has been proven in court.
Amid the storm of objections raised by Marois this week, Brassard has said the paper stands by the story.
Public figures like Marois should expect scrutiny, he has said.
In the early 1990s, the couple had to get past several legal hurdles to build on land that was zoned for agriculture and included a stretch owned by the province.
The suit says the article insinuated Marois and Blanchet received favourable treatment to occupy government land because of her political connections.
The newspaper article also said an elderly man claimed he was paid $1,600 after giving testimony that helped the couple get permission to build their home.
Marois later admitted the man was given $500, but she insisted it was a simple gift for his time and trouble.
The man gave a sworn statement this week confirming the amount and saying the money was not tied to his testimony.
The story was published just days before Marois sought a byelection seat in the Quebec legislature.
The lawsuit says the article contained false allegations "with the manifest goal of maliciously damaging Mrs. Marois' election campaign.''
She won the vote easily in the riding of Charlevoix, northeast of Quebec City.
Brassard has denied the PQ leader's allegation the article was an attempt to smear her reputation two days before a byelection this week.
The story was in the works for weeks, he said, and Marsden attempted to contact Marois for several days.
