Bellemare grilled during cross-examination

Former Quebec justice minister Marc Bellemare often looked down at his hands and gave monosyllabic answers during his third day of testimony at an inquiry examining the province's judge nomination process.

Bellemare's allegations that Liberal Party fundraisers pressured him to appoint judges favoured by Liberal donors when he was minister in 2003 and 2004 prompted the inquiry.

Bellemare began testifying before the inquiry in Quebec City last Tuesday. On his third day of testimony Monday, he was cross-examined by the government's chief prosecutor, Suzanne Côté.

Côté attacked Bellemare's credibility and asked if he remembered telling a journalist after he was elected in 2003 that he was a morally upstanding politician who didn't buckle easily under pressure.

Bellemare admitted he did recall saying that.

The former justice minister testified last week that three of the judges he named he chose because he was pressured to do so by Liberal fundraisers, notably, construction contractor Franco Fava.

Bellemare said he told premier Jean Charest that he was being ordered to name certain people to the bench and that the premier urged him to listen to Fava and other party fundraisers.

During cross-examination Monday, Côté asked Bellemare if he understood that as attorney general, he had ultimate power over nominating Quebec's judges and that the government and all Quebecers depended on him to not go along with any irregular activities.

"Everything was new for me," said Bellemare, speaking about when he was named justice minister.

Bellemare said there was no handbook on how to name a judge and that each case was different.

The former justice minister was also challenged over the demotion of Pierre Legendre, who was co-ordinator of the judge nomination system in 2003 and is also the brother of prominent Parti Québécois MNA Richard Legendre.

Bellemare said he had nothing to do with shuffling Pierre Legendre out of the Justice Department when the Liberals took power in 2003.

However, he did admit that he became worried about the move when he learned the Legendres were brothers.

Bellemare will continue to be cross-examined tomorrow by lawyers for both the Liberal Party and Charest himself.

After his cross-examination, the commission, which is headed by retired Supreme Court justice Michel Bastarache, will begin hearing from about 40 other witnesses.