When he created the Bastarache Commission, Jean Charest was probably hoping its final report would help him clean up his government's image as a scandal-ridden and tired regime.
But this week the court of public opinion appeared unswayed when, predictably enough, Michel Bastarache dismissed former justice minister Marc Bellemare's allegations of influence-peddling by Liberal fundraisers in the naming of three judges under Charest's seal of approval.
After Charest expeditiously set up the inquiry last April, every poll on the subject showed that a majority of Quebecers believed Bellemare's allegations, including when he publicly called the premier a liar.
So chances are that many Quebecers will also agree with Bellemare's reaction yesterday when he called the report "biased," "complacent," an "abuse of power" and a "public-relations exercise."
Speaking on TVA, Bellemare wrapped it up this way: "The population is the jury. If Mr. Charest had been judged by a jury, he would have been condemned beyond any reasonable doubt."
As for Bastarache, a former Supreme Court justice appointed by Jean Chretien in 1997, Bellemare denounced the many "obstacles and obstructions" that he charged the judge had imposed on him and his lawyers during the commission's televised hearings. That's something Quebecers got to see first hand.
Bellemare also reminded the court of public opinion that the government wrote the inquiry's mandate after Bastarache was picked by former Liberal minister Jacques Dupuis in a single friendly phone call.
Then Bellemare hit the political nail on the head. "When a commissioner knows that he's accepting a mandate where the premier's political career and his government's fate hang in the balance, since any blame against the premier would have been catastrophic, I believe it's a biased exercise ... and the population lends no credibility to Mr. Bastarache."
How long will it take before voters realize that Charest's $700,000 suit against Bellemare, which he launched around the same time as he set up the Bastarache inquiry, probably stands to benefit as well from such a devastating report for Bellemare?
Yesterday, Parti Quebecois justice critic Veronique Hivon even accused Justice Minister Jean-Marc Fournier of implicating himself in the upcoming libel trial by making "dangerous" and "extremely worrisome" statements saying Bellemare's allegations were unfounded.
For the Liberal caucus, which began meeting in Beauport yesterday, it's a sign that 2011 is off to as bad a start as 2010.
It will be two full years in April since the Action democratique first asked for an independent inquiry on corruption and collusion in the construction industry, patronage and party financing. That demand has been since supported by almost 80 per cent of Quebecers.
Given the ongoing media reports about scandal, none of this is about to go away. The outgoing president of the FTQ-Construction made a spectacular statement this week that organized crime and money-laundering are "everywhere," including in construction companies and unions.
As the government prepares to spend more than $40 billion in a myriad of infrastructure and construction projects, who will believe that Charest's special Marteau police squad can even begin to clean up such a mess?
In this sea of allegations, which often involve Liberal donors, the Bastarache report is just too complacent to be credible or help Liberal Party fortunes in any lasting way.
This week began with a Leger Marketing poll showing a 75-per-cent level of dissatisfaction toward the government. Liberal support hovers around 21 per cent among francophones.
This has been an unwavering trend for over a year. But even more devastating were the results to the question of who would make the best premier. While 41 per cent of respondents didn't know or refused to answer, Charest found himself neck and neck with Quebec solidaire's lone MNA, Amir Khadir, at 15 per cent.
Now that has to hurt. But perhaps not quite as much as Bellemare's unrelenting public attacks in the wake of Bastarache's all-too-predictable conclusions.