By HENRY AUBIN - Maclean's cover story on Quebec, "The Most Corrupt Province in Canada," is a journalistic embarrassment.
Yes, Quebec has a putrid level of corruption. But the problem is with that one crucial word -"most." Is corruption really worse here than elsewhere in Canada? It could well be. But it's a serious accusation -one that could easily affect outsiders' investment decisions. The national magazine makes no attempt to compare the situation in Quebec empirically with that in other provinces.
To be sure, Maclean's lists some headline-making scandals in other provinces, and it concludes that since more such cases have been unearthed in Quebec than elsewhere this province has to be the most corrupt.
The flaw in logic here is blatant. Corruption by definition is hidden. There is no way of knowing how much goes on out of sight.
Maclean's would have been on firmer ground if it had called Quebec "the most visibly corrupt province."
Or, better yet, "the province with the most journalistic success in unearthing corruption." After all, we still wouldn't know of the widespread sleaze between contractors on the one hand and municipal and provincial governments on the other if not for Montreal's investigative reporters.
The Toronto-based magazine's clumsy headline is all the more unfortunate because it has predictably provoked theatrical shrieks of indignation from many nationalists who see it as a case of English Canada looking down its nose at Quebec. (A Maclean's cover story last fall with another grabber headline, "Montreal is a corrupt, crumbling, mob-ridden disgrace," prompted no such outrage, because it made no such comparison with English-Canadian behaviour.)
If we go behind the headline (and the unwarranted use of Quebec City's Bonhomme Carnaval as a symbol of sleaze), this latest article has value. It tries to see what causes corruption in Quebec. One proposal: The existential debate over sovereignty has eclipsed the need for good government.
Well, yes. But let's not take that explanation too far.
When you think about it, the lion's share of scandals (adscam, Shawinigate, the Tremblay administration's cronyism and the Charest government's ties to contractors, among others) have involved federalist politicians. Parti Quebecois governments have tended to have relatively few visible cases of conventional corruption. (I'm not talking of the PQ's underhanded attempts to reject valid federalist referendum votes, rather I'm talking of corruption in terms of self-enrichment.)
Why? It could be that PQ officials have got into politics to pursue what is for them an uplifting ideal, independence. As a group, federalist politicians have had few driving ideals. Self-interest or power for power's sake is more often what seems to motivate them.
I want to be cautious with this analysis because, who knows, a lot of corruption might have gone on under the PQ without detection. But, that said, you can see the same kind of idealist-makes-for-relative-hygiene phenomenon at the municipal level. Much less visible sleaze occurred during the Montreal Citzens Movement's years in power at city hall, 1986-1994, than at any other time in a generation, and that administration -big on democratic reform -was also the most idealistic.
Here are some other factors behind corruption in Quebec.
-¦Police have been largely passive in regard to it.
-¦The system of checks and balances is weak. You can see it at Montreal city hall where many plum contracts have been awarded behind closed doors and without council debate. Comparable secrecy has existed provincially. (It's too early to know if reforms at either level will work.)
-¦ Money from the prospect-ive contractors still swamps both the provincial and municipal spheres, despite PQ reforms of the 1970s.
-¦The noble idea of civil service as a bastion of apolitical savoir-faire has been degraded. In Montreal, private consultants more interested in private gain than public service have replaced civil servants steered contracts toward pals. At the provincial level, a senior mandarin suggested to the Bastarache commission that it was normal for someone in his position to discuss with a major Liberal fundraiser, Franco Fava, whom to appoint to sensitive jobs. So much for neutrality.
In the end, maybe the Maclean's piece will yet do some good. Though it damages Quebec's reputation more than it ought, it adds to the pressure on the Charest government to call for an inquiry into the construction industry. That's Step One for cleaning things up.
haubin YSh montrealgazette.com