A journalist who helped expose the federal sponsorship scandal says he'd rather face jail time than reveal his source in court.

Globe and Mail reporter Daniel Leblanc has been ordered to face questions in Quebec's Superior Court about the identity of his source, known only by a code name: "Ma chouette."

He's due to appear in mid-March, but says he has no intention of giving any details.

"This was a source who blew the whistle — in the public interest — on massive fraud so I'm willing to go wherever it needs to go," he told CBC on Sunday.

Leblanc could be charged with contempt of court and ordered to pay a fine or be given a jail sentence if he fails to answer the court's questions.

The source provided key information to begin investigating the story, he said.

"From the start, I basically had a picture of the whole sponsorship scandal and most of the key players were named in those first emails, so it provided a real blueprint," he said.

Created to raise the federal government's profile in the wake of the 1995 Quebec sovereignty referendum, the sponsorship program put millions of taxpayer dollars into the pockets of Liberal-friendly advertising firms, that did little or no work. The scandal devastated the Liberal party in Quebec and helped drive them out of power in the 2006 federal election.

Groupe Polygone, one of the ad companies accused of overbilling the federal government, wants to know the identity of Leblanc's source. The federal government is suing Group Polygone for $35 million it says was paid to the firm by the former Liberal government under the sponsorship program.

François Bourque, president of the Quebec Federation of Journalists, said Leblanc must not be forced to reveal his source.

"You can imagine the consequences of that because from now on, if you allow that to happen, it means that no civil servant in the future will feel free to talk to a journalist when he witnesses some wrongdoing in the public use of money," he said.

Last week in the House of Commons, Bloc Québécois MP Carole Freeman called for the federal government to protect Leblanc from having to reveal his source.

David Paccioco, a law professor at the University of Ottawa, said Leblanc's best defence is to "persuade the court that the nature of the story that was broken had such tremendous public interest and the ability to break that story depended on a promise of confidentiality."