Former Parti Québécois leader André Boisclair pleaded guilty Monday to two counts of sexual assault in separate cases involving two 20-year-olds at the time of the crimes.
In the first case, Boisclair pleaded guilty to one count of sexual assault with the involvement of another person, which dates back to January 2014. He had also been charged in this case with sexual assault with a weapon, but this charge was suspended.
In the second case, Boisclair, 56, pleaded guilty to sexual assault in November 2015.
Boisclair’s victims, whose identities are protected by a publication ban, told the court how the assaults changed their lives. A man testified Monday that he had dropped out of college and had abandoned the dreams of a career in politics because of what Boisclair had done to him.
The Crown and the defense filed a joint sentencing recommendation of two years minus one day in prison. Quebec court judge Pierre Labelle said Monday he would deliberate and hand down his sentence on July 18.
Boisclair was minister of the provincial cabinet and served as leader of the PQ between 2005 and 2007, when the party was in opposition.
He was Quebec’s general delegate in New York from 2012 to 2013 and was president of the Quebec Institute of Urban Development from 2016 until his arrest in May 2018.