Péladeau's campaign debt could spell trouble for Quebecor's public contracts

By Steve Faguy

MONTREAL — Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau's brief foray into Quebec politics might hurt his company in a way that he never predicted, and now he's trying to sort his way out of it.On Tuesday, Péladeau announced he was going to appeal his own guilty plea, admitting to violating Quebec's campaign finance law by paying off his 2015 Parti Québécois leadership campaign's debt, because he learned that the province's anti-corruption law might cause that illegal act to make the companies he owns — Quebecor and its subsidiaries — ineligible for government contracts.Péladeau made the guilty plea on July 10, admitting...