Recently facts began to emerge about the former girlfriend of Foreign Affairs Minister, Maxime Bernier. It has now come to light that 38-year-old Julie Couillard was associated with members of biker gangs.
She was the girlfriend of Gilles Giguère who was facing firearms and drug charges before he was killed in 1996. The next year Couillard married Stéphane Sirois, a member of the Rockers, a club that is associated with the Hells Angels. It has even been said that at one time, the infamous Maurice (Moms) Boucher had put out a contract on Couillard’s life because he did not trust her.
Not surprisingly, the opposition (with the exception of the NDP) jumped on the relationship between the Foreign Affairs Minister and his ex-girlfriend. In particular, Bernier had designated her as “my spouse” so that she was able to travel with him. The Liberals and the Bloc expressed concerns that Couillard may have been exposed to sensitive information or top secret documents.
What was surprising was the reaction of Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the government. Harper said that Bernier’s relationship with Couillard was a private matter and referred to Stéphane Dion and Gilles Duceppe as “busybodies”. It was as if, any national security interest that might have been at play was less important than the dating practices of MPs.
Bill Clinton must have been so proud of Steve; no doubt he would have called to congratulate him if he weren’t so busy with Hillary’s 2008 2012 presidential campaign. At least with Monica Lewinsky, there wasn’t even a perception that US national security was threatened. It was just Bubba and raw sex.
Couillard has no criminal record and there is no evidence that she has done anything wrong. But the RCMP reported years ago that organized crime and specifically biker gangs attempt to infiltrate other organizations including government. This fact doesn’t seem to interest the current government.
Couillard, as a minister’s “spouse” didn’t have a security clearance; under current guidelines only minister’s and not their spouses nor close family members need them. Given the alleged importance that the Harper government puts on security you would think that even discussing broadening the requirements of security clearances for family members who travel with ministers should at least be discussed. But no. For all the talk about law and order and security, Stephen Harper would rather play politics and defend Bernier than to even consider steps that would help make the country more secure.
Let’s suppose that the lovely Ms. Couillard would have been a Muslim. And she had lived with a man who had links with a terrorist group and died a violent death when he blew himself up in an apartment while building a bomb. Let’s also suppose that after his untimely demise, she married a member of Al Qaeda. Would Harper stand up in Parliament and say that that was a private matter? Although millions of Muslims around the world would probably say no, the scary thing is that he probably would. Protecting someone on his front bench is seemingly more important than national security.
If Harper was truly a law and order prime minister who puts a high premium on Canada’s national security, he would at a minimum review the guidelines concerning who should require security clearances. But that is not likely to happen.
As for organized crime groups and terrorist organizations that would just love to infiltrate the Canadian government at its highest level, not only do they now know how to do it, but they have been given carte blanche to try. None of this is to suggest that Julie Couillard or Maxime Bernier have done anything wrong but that’s not the point. The point is that a government that really took our national security seriously would at a minimum investigate the system if not the parties involved. But according to Steve, we can’t intrude on Maxie’s love life.
There are advantages to having a Conservative government in Ottawa instead of the usual Liberal crowd. Unfortunately many of us believed that we would be safer from organized criminals and terrorists under a law and order Conservative Party government. Sadly, that does not appear to be the case.
