Pubdate: Wed, 21 Sep 2005
Source: Montreal Gazette (CN QU)
Copyright: 2005 The Gazette, a division of Southam Inc.
Contact:  http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/274
Author: Don MacPherson
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/coke.htm (Cocaine)

BOISCLAIR'S EVASIVENESS KEEPS COKE ISSUE ALIVE

Andre Boisclair almost lost it yesterday - his grip, if not the Parti 
Quebecois leadership. After a year spent in Boston perfecting his 
English as well as acquiring academic credentials he previously 
lacked, he declined to answer reporters' questions in that language.

And accidentally struck by a hand-held microphone while trying to 
flee the scrum, he complained at excessive length about being 
"physically assaulted" by unappreciative reporters after he had 
answered "all questions." It seemed as though he might burst into tears.

Watching the television footage of the incident, how many people 
asked themselves the following question: If this is how close 
Boisclair is to cracking on only a second bad day in a row, how would 
he stand up to an October or an Oka crisis as premier?

And how many Pequistes asked themselves this additional question: 
Does this look as though the front-runner in their party's leadership 
election has the nerve of a Jacques Parizeau to lead Quebec to 
independence, unilaterally if necessary, as provided in the party 
program he supports?

After the past two days, the issue is no longer just about the 
perhaps not-so-distant past when Boisclair, as he has finally 
admitted, used cocaine, first while he was a member of the National 
Assembly and then as a cabinet minister.

And that still is an issue, for the very least we should expect from 
those who make our laws - even if they are in their early 20s, as 
Boisclair was when he was first elected - is that they also obey them.

But now the issue is also about the present, about what kind of 
candidate for leadership Boisclair is now, as he has revealed in recent days.

We know he is deceitful, though that hardly makes him unique in 
politics (or, for that matter, society). Last Friday, he implied he 
had used cocaine only in his 20s. On Monday, he admitted he had done 
so as a minister, meaning when he was in his 30s.

He says he has stopped, but - contrary to his assertion he has 
answered "all questions" - won't say when he stopped.

The question matters. If he did not stop using cocaine until he also 
stopped being a minister two years ago, then maybe his use of the 
drug is related to the stress of that job. And if so, then how will 
he cope with the greater pressure of being premier of Canada's most 
difficult province to govern, let alone leading it through secession?

Yesterday's papers were full of sound advice from editorialists, 
columnists and others that Boisclair answer that question and many 
others and put them behind him once and for all. But he did not heed 
that advice.

Why he did not do so, in either interviews or a detailed written 
statement, is a mystery. For it meant the questions will follow him 
into this evening's first all-candidates' meeting in the leadership 
campaign. And at least one of the minor pretenders, sovereignist 
hard-liner Jean-Claude St-Andre, is clearly out to get Boisclair.

In fact, it's Boisclair himself who is largely responsible for 
keeping the story alive, through his evasiveness and grudging 
admissions. Again yesterday, he said he had nothing more to say "for 
the moment," which is hardly likely to discourage further questions.

Maybe Boisclair has nothing left to hide. But he has been acting as 
though he does, stonewalling and carefully avoiding outright or 
sweeping denials he might not be able to make truthfully, as though 
he's not certain how much others know and might be willing to tell.

The issue of Boisclair's cocaine use was raised by a three-month-old 
regional newspaper story drawn to the attention of Le Devoir 
columnist Michel David last week by a rival candidate's organization 
(that of Pauline Marois is widely suspected).

It alluded mysteriously and luridly to "cocaine, drinking to excess 
and weekends of excitement at the end of which one cannot find the 
car one has rented" in Boisclair's past. So far, all he has admitted 
is about the cocaine, and not everything about that.
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MAP posted-by: Elizabeth Wehrman