The family of an elderly citizen of the Mauricie, star of the new CAQ advertisements, is indignant that she received only $250 for her participation.
"It is [...] immoral to take advantage of an elderly woman with a modest income," writes Chantal Landry, in an open letter published this Saturday in Le Devoir.
His nearly 80-year-old mother is the star of the new Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) advertisements, broadcast massively on television and on the web.
The headliner of these ads, whose name has not been made public, would have received a check for $ 250 for his contribution, according to the Montreal daily.
At the same time, she would have signed a discharge allowing the political party to use her testimony for advertising purposes.
"At the dawn of her 80th birthday, I see that my mother is still suffering financial abuse," protested Ms. Landry in her missive directly addressed to Prime Minister François Legault.
These four 15-second clips, which are described as "vox-pop" by the CAQ, are also nothing spontaneous, learned Le Devoir.
Filmed in May in front of her humble house in the Mauricie, she would have answered questions for more than an hour from an advertising company mandated by the political formation.
"This situation is twisted and truly disturbing, because the line between documentary and publicity drawn in this case is thin and appears to be unnamedly blurred," she worries.
Nothing objectionable
However, the process would have been done according to the rules of the art, according to Benoît Duguay, professor at the School of Management Sciences at UQAM.
“She is a person who believes a lot in the ideas of the CAQ and she is ready to say so publicly. We told him: we are ready to pay you $250. I don't even understand how the family can say anything," he said.
In his eyes, it would therefore not be a question of remuneration, but of compensation.
♦ During the 2018 election campaign, this lady was spontaneously questioned on a sidewalk in Shawinigan. His testimony was then part of an advertisement broadcast on TV.