MontrealTexts revealed by the Journal de Montréal suggest party members were paid to vote for Pablo Rodriguez in the last Quebec Liberal Party leadership race.Texts revealed by Journal de Montréal suggest party members were paid to vote for him in leadership raceHénia Ould-Hammou · CBC News · Posted: Nov 19, 2025 11:35 AM EST | Last Updated: 15 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 3 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Pablo Rodriguez, leader of the Quebec Liberal Party. (CBC)The Quebec Liberal Party continues to be shaken by turmoil, with leader Pablo Rodriguez ordering an investigation into alleged text messages revealed by the Journal de Montréal that suggest party members were financially rewarded for voting for him in the last leadership race.Speaking to journalists at a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Rodriguez said he found out about the alleged text messages for the first time this morning, upon reading the Journal article.”We have nothing to hide, I have nothing to hide,” Rodriguez told reporters.”We don’t even know if these text messages are real or not.” In a written statement earlier this morning, Rodriguez told the media he asked the president of the party to commission an external and “completely” independent firm to conduct a full investigation, analyze the facts and establish the necessary conclusions. “The allegations published today are serious,” Rodriguez wrote. “We take this situation extremely seriously and want to shed full light on this.”The Journal de Montréal said it consulted messages exchanged last spring between “two individuals who were actively working to elect Mr. Rodriguez as leader.”The alleged text messages refer to the sale of membership cards and money spent to get people to vote for Rodriguez.MNAs speak out, deny any involvementAlice Abou-Khalil, CAQ MNA for Fabre, took to social media to clear her name.”This morning, in a column on 98.5, my name was mentioned,” she wrote. “I want to be clear: I have absolutely nothing to do with this story. The text messages revealed in the Journal de Montréal article did not come from me.”Abou-Khalil added that she would co-operate “fully with any investigation.”Liberal MNA for Chomedey Sona Lakhoyan Olivier followed suit, defending herself on social media as well. “This morning, my name was mentioned in connection with allegations circulating about text exchanges,” wrote Lakhoyan Olivier on X. “I categorically deny being the person involved in these exchanges, which may have been falsified in whole or in part and whose authenticity has never been proven by any independent source.”Marwah Rizqy was suspended from caucus after what the Quebec Liberal Party described as a ‘breach of trust.’ (Sylvain Roy Roussel/CBC)The controversy comes after Marwah Rizqy’s suspension from the Liberal caucus on Tuesday. Rizqy was removed from her duties as parliamentary leader by Rodriguez after a “breach of trust,” stated the Quebec Liberal Party in a statement. It was confirmed by Rodriguez that the “breach of trust” relates to Rizqy, parliamentary leader since June, firing her chief of staff, Geneviève Hinse, and replacing her without consulting him beforehand.ABOUT THE AUTHORHénia Ould-Hammou is a journalist with CBC Montreal. She previously completed an internship with La Presse after graduating from McGill University with a double major in political science and psychology. Hénia is interested in international and societal issues, community stories, soccer, politics and rap. Send her an email at henia.ould-hammou@cbc.ca With files from Holly Cabrera and Radio-Canada
‘We have nothing to hide’: Quebec Liberal Party leader speaks out on alleged vote-for-cash scheme
