The mayor of a Montreal suburb publicly revealed herself Tuesday as the victim of ex-Parti Québécois legislator Harold LeBel, who was sentenced to eight months in prison after sexually assaulting her in 2017 when they were both PQ members.
Catherine Fournier was a young rising star in the PQ after her December 2016 byelection win, but by March 2019 she had quit to sit as an Independent.
She was elected mayor of Longueuil, Que., in November 2021 and left provincial politics. “If I choose to speak now, it is to share my experience, to help other people benefit from what I have learned … hoping that something positive can finally emerge from these sad events,” Fournier said Tuesday in a message on Instagram.
Read more: Former PQ MNA Harold LeBel sentenced to eight months in jail for sex assault Fournier, 31, had asked Quebec Superior Court Justice Serge Francoeur during a hearing in March to remove the publication ban that is standard on the identity of sexual assault complainants.