Bernier resigns

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accepted the resignation of his embattled foreign affairs minister over an apparent security breach involving cabinet documents.

Mr. Harper told an extraordinary new conference on Parliament Hill that Maxime Bernier's controversial relationship with a woman linked to the Hells Angels was not a factor in the decision.

But the resignation came as Julie Couillard was about to go to air on the French-language television station TVA to say that her former lover was careless with classified documents.

The Prime Minister says Mr. Bernier failed to uphold his promise to protect cabinet confidences.

A source tells The Canadian Press that Mr. Bernier left an extremely sensitive classified document at Ms. Couillard's apartment, and her lawyer notified the Foreign Affairs department about the document on the weekend.

The Prime Minister announced that David Emerson, the international trade minister, will take over as interim foreign affairs minister.

Montreal newspaper Le Devoir reported today that Ms. Couillard - who had links to the criminal biker underworld as late as 2005 is the head of a high-tech firm that has been involved in security at airports.

And it quotes a source as saying she received documents regarding airport security in 2005, before she met the minister.

The Conservative government had said Ms. Couillard's relationship with Bernier is a private matter and that their relationship which ended recently is no threat to security.

However, the government has refused to say whether any security checks were done on Ms. Couillard.

Deputy Liberal opposition leader Michael Ignatieff raised the latest revelations in the House of Commons Monday.

"There is a public security question when there is a possible link between airport security and organized crime," Mr. Ignatieff said. "If there is no link, all they have to do is stand up and say so and we will leave the matter aside."

Government House Leader Peter Van Loan responded by accusing the Liberals of trying to turn Question Period into "the Jerry Spring Show dealing with the personal lives of people and cabinet ministers' ex-girlfriends."

"The specific occasion [Mr. Ignatieff's] speaking about took place under a Liberal government," Mr. Van Loan added. "If there was a security breach at that time, it was under the Liberal government."

Experts in the field who have spoken on the issue have been unanimous in their opinion that the Bernier-Couillard relationship would have warranted a background check.

She has been married to one biker, lived with another, and dated a third alleged biker as recently as 2005 roughly two years before she began seeing Mr. Bernier.

Ms. Couillard says her name has been unfairly dragged through the mud and that the public humiliation has been devastating.

She granted an interview with TVA in Montreal, which is scheduled to be aired on the French-language network tonight.

James Morton
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