Sona Lakhoyan Olivier faces $8000 penalty recommendation
Sona Lakhoyan Olivier faces an $8000 penalty recommendation after Quebec ethics commissioner Ariane Mignolet concluded that she violated the Assembly of National ethics code. Mignolet said the Chomedey office was used for partisan purposes and that Lakhoyan Olivier hindered the inquiry after it began.
The commissioner tabled the report at the National Assembly on Thursday and recommended that the Liberal MNA for Chomedey be fined $8000. Parliament is expected to vote in the next few days on whether to implement the sanction, while Lakhoyan Olivier has five days of the session left to respond to the report.
Chomedey office use
Mignolet said the office space and staff payroll were used for partisan purposes between April and June 2025, and that the partisan activity increased at two key moments in the leadership race. She wrote that the Chomedey office became the headquarters for partisan activities carried out by the Chomedey riding association.
In the report tabled Thursday, Mignolet said Lakhoyan Olivier “a commis un manquement à l’article 36 du Code en permettant que les ressources mises à la disposition du bureau de circonscription soient utilisées pour la campagne d’un candidat de la course à la chefferie du Parti”. The commissioner said the activity benefited Pablo Rodriguez during the Liberal leadership race.
Mignolet report on inquiry
The inquiry began on December 4, five months before the report was tabled. Mignolet said Lakhoyan Olivier interfered after the investigation started by discussing it several times with staff to persuade them of her version of events.
Mignolet also wrote that she changed the settings of a discussion channel used for professional and partisan purposes to stop anyone from saving images or exporting the conversation history. She said Lakhoyan Olivier did not provide excerpts of that conversation to the commissioner and that the conduct amounted to obstruction.
Assembly vote in Quebec
Mignolet said the recommended $8000 penalty “s’appuie sur plusieurs facteurs, entre autres la gravité des manquements, le manque de respect de la députée envers les membres de son personnel et l’Assemblée nationale, sa collaboration insuffisante à l’enquête ainsi que le fait qu’elle ne s’est pas acquittée de son devoir d’exemplarité et qu’elle ne reconnaît pas réellement avoir commis des manquements”. The Liberal Party supports the recommendation, and Charles Milliard is maintaining Lakhoyan Olivier’s exclusion from the Liberal caucus.
Milliard also said he will present another candidate in Chomedey. Mignolet said this is the first time since the ethics code was adopted in 2010 that a deputy has received a financial penalty under it.
