Quebec, Canada, Motorcycle owners outraged PR firm hired ‘to spy on us’

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/quebec/motorcycle-owners-outraged-pr-firm-hired-to-spy-on-us/article1832195/

Motorcycle owners outraged PR firm hired ‘to spy on us’

RHÉAL SÉGUIN QUEBEC CITY— From Friday's Globe and Mail Published Thursday, Thursday, Dec. 09, 2010
An association of motorcycle owners in Quebec says it is angry that the province’s automobile insurance board hired a private firm to gather information about the group.
The board decided to monitor the group of motorcyclists earlier this year after learning that a coalition of angry owners had been formed to fight huge insurance rate hikes.
Insurers ask Ottawa to ease ownership rules Bike shows to get your motor running Insurance products you can probably do without The public relations firm National was granted a contract to investigate the activities of the Front Commun Motocycliste, which had set up kiosks at a Quebec City motorcycle show.
“They give the impression of being organized, documented and especially very motivated,” the firm stated in its two-page report after observing the group at the bike show. The report stated that the motorcycle owners were “dynamic and aggressive in their approach” with visitors.
Members of the group were appalled to learn that the government would pay a private firm to monitor their activities.
“We are outraged, flabbergasted and scandalized to learn that $6,000 in taxpayers’ money was used to spy on us. We are average taxpayers. We aren’t al-Qaeda,” said Éric Lessard, spokesman for the group. “The government is showing complete contempt for motorcycle owners.”
The Parti Québécois said in the National Assembly that the government’s move cost $6,000 but the automobile insurance board released documents showing that the contract cost $2,304.
The board denied spying on the group. “There was a lot of anger and we knew protest groups were being formed,” said a spokeswoman for the automobile insurance board, Audrey Chaput. “We granted a contract to the firm National to go out and listen to what the groups were saying and to feel the pulse of the movement.”
Motorcycle owners have protested vigorously against insurance rate increases that have doubled since 2007 for owners of average-size motorcycles and more than quadrupled to $1,414 a year for owners of high-powered motorcycles considered more hazardous by the insurance board.
Parti Québécois critic Nicolas Girard asked in the National Assembly on Thursday “why rates paid by motorcyclists were being used by the government to spy on them?”
Government House leader Jean-Marc Fournier refused to respond to opposition questions, saying that when it came to spying “I leave that to Claude Morin.”
Mr. Fournier was referring to the former PQ Minister of Intergovernmental Affairs Claude Morin, who in May of 1992 admitted to being a paid RCMP informant when he was a member of former premier René Lévesque’s government in the 1970s.