A lover, lowlifes and strange bedfellows
By Ian Austen | New York Times News Service
May 28, 2008
OTTAWA — First Maxime Bernier lost his girlfriend. Then he lost his job as Canada's minister of foreign affairs.
Bernier's political and personal setbacks are related. His former romantic interest, Julie Couillard, was linked to Quebec's motorcycle gangs, which have long attempted to infiltrate politics and the justice systems. Late Monday, Bernier resigned shortly before Couillard revealed in a TV interview that he had left confidential government documents in her suburban Montreal apartment. (((Oh yeah. She was microfilming those. Not.)))
Prime Minister Stephen Harper cited only carelessness as the reason for Bernier's resignation, but his departure is widely viewed as a response to the fallout from the relationship and to Bernier's tendency for diplomatic blunders.
Biker gangs in Bernier's home province, Quebec, have, among other things, killed prison guards and shot a crime journalist. (((And they also took over the newspapers in order to subvert democratic governments. Oh sorry, that was Rupert Murdoch.)))
Since opposition politicians learned about Couillard's links to organized crime figures three weeks ago, they have argued that her relationship with Bernier threatened Canada's national security. Harper initially dismissed those politicians as "quite a group of gossipy old busybodies." (((Aka "vast right-wing conspiracy." It's unusual to have the "gossipy busybodies" bring down a government minister without at least a few handy wiretap leaks or maybe some bedroom video.)))
But the romance that Harper once said he didn't take seriously may now have repercussions for his Conservative Party. If his party is to win a majority of the votes in Parliament during the next election, it will have to gain considerable support in Quebec.
Handsome and self-confident, Bernier was made foreign affairs minister last August in a likely effort to raise his profile and turn him into the party's standard-bearer in Quebec.
Couillard, a former model, aspiring actress and real estate agent, helped Bernier attract attention from the time of his swearing in as a member of the Cabinet, though perhaps not in the way Harper might have hoped. She arrived at the official residence of the governor general of Canada for the midmorning ceremony in an unusually low-cut gown, causing a stir.
On Monday, Couillard began her television interview by insisting that she was "definitely not a biker's chick." And she noted that she had never been accused of a crime. But once that was out of the way, she went on to confirm the essence of news reports connecting her to organized-crime figures.
Beginning in 1993, Couillard lived for three years with Gilles Giguere, a well-known crime figure connected to Maurice Boucher, the now-jailed leader of the Hells Angels in Quebec who is better known as Mom.
After police arrested Giguere for possessing submachine guns and a large quantity of marijuana, he became an informant. Giguere was killed in 1996; his body was discovered in a ditch....
