admin
06-26-2008, 10:37 AM
~Bernier questioned over pillow talk; Cabinet minister's girlfriend had ties to Hells Angels~
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dismissing security concerns over the relationship between a top cabinet minister and an ex-girlfriend with past ties to the Hells Angels.
The opposition wants to know whether Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's relationship with Julie Couillard was a security risk.
But Harper brushed off the matter Thursday, accusing the opposition of being "gossipy old busybodies."
He said Bernier's relationships are a private matter and nobody's business.
Couillard, 38, accompanied Bernier to a cabinet swearing-in ceremony and to his speech at the United Nations General Assembly. His office says they recently broke up.
Couillard was linked romantically to Gilles Giguere, an associate of Hells Angels boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher, and was once married to Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers biker gang.
Giguere was murdered and a report in the Globe and Mail cited court documents in which a biker-turned-informant said the gang had also considered killing Couillard during the 1990s Quebec biker wars.
Still, the government - and Bernier - cast aside questions about the security risk and his judgment in the House of Commons on Thursday. "Never did I think I'd get such a nasty and low attack from an opposition party," Bernier said in response to deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. "This concerns my private life, the private life in the past of my former girlfriend, and the private lives of people are none of your business."
Ignatieff shot back: "Questions about ministerial judgment and national security are not a private matter; they are everyone's business." ...
More... (http://www.bikernews.net/index.cfm/d/news/p/read/newsid/7532)
Prime Minister Stephen Harper is dismissing security concerns over the relationship between a top cabinet minister and an ex-girlfriend with past ties to the Hells Angels.
The opposition wants to know whether Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's relationship with Julie Couillard was a security risk.
But Harper brushed off the matter Thursday, accusing the opposition of being "gossipy old busybodies."
He said Bernier's relationships are a private matter and nobody's business.
Couillard, 38, accompanied Bernier to a cabinet swearing-in ceremony and to his speech at the United Nations General Assembly. His office says they recently broke up.
Couillard was linked romantically to Gilles Giguere, an associate of Hells Angels boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher, and was once married to Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers biker gang.
Giguere was murdered and a report in the Globe and Mail cited court documents in which a biker-turned-informant said the gang had also considered killing Couillard during the 1990s Quebec biker wars.
Still, the government - and Bernier - cast aside questions about the security risk and his judgment in the House of Commons on Thursday. "Never did I think I'd get such a nasty and low attack from an opposition party," Bernier said in response to deputy Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff. "This concerns my private life, the private life in the past of my former girlfriend, and the private lives of people are none of your business."
Ignatieff shot back: "Questions about ministerial judgment and national security are not a private matter; they are everyone's business." ...
More... (http://www.bikernews.net/index.cfm/d/news/p/read/newsid/7532)
