The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that members of a special legislative committee are attempting to shed light on the purchase of hardware firm Rona by U.S.-based Lowe's Cos. A Canadian Press dispatch to The Globe quotes Quebec's opposition parties as saying that the government did nothing to prevent a company considered important to the province's pride and identity from being sold to American interests. Pierre Ouellet, the former chief of staff to ex-cabinet minister Jacques Daoust, began testifying Thursday afternoon about what the minister knew before the deal went through. At issue is Mr. Ouellet's role in the sale of 11 million Rona shares held by government agency Investissement Quebec for $140-million when he was chief of staff to Mr. Daoust, who was then economy minister. That sale occurred in 2014, two years before Lowe's paid $3.2-billion for the Quebec hardware chain.