QUEBEC CITY, Que. – Members and employees of the Quebec provincial cabinet suffered a temporary scare on March 5, after envelopes containing suspicious white powder and threatening notes were sent to the riding offices of four cabinet ministers. Infrastructure Minister Denis Lebel’s office in Roberval, north of Quebec City, received the first envelope around 10:00 a.m., according to information from the Quebec Provincial Police; the other envelopes went to the offices of International Aid Minister Christian Paradis, Small Business Minister Maxime Bernier and Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney. The offices were evacuated and three employees were sent to hospitals as a precautionary measure, but an analysis of the powder later showed it to be harmless. “We won’t be intimidated by this,” said Lebel in a press statement following the incidents. “We don’t get into politics to be threatened, to have our employees put at risk.” The incidents occurred on the same morning on which the Quebec national assembly received a hoax bomb threat, but there was no evidence yet of a link between the two events, federal officials told the media.