Tories stand by Bernier
Gov't says minister's romance with woman linked to Hell's Angels no threat to national security
OTTAWA - The Harper government says Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's recent romantic liaison is no threat to national security, despite a news report that said his ex-girlfriend's links to the criminal underworld were more recent than previously thought.
But the Conservatives refused to say whether authorities investigated the affair or took any other measures that allowed them to conclude there was no threat.
Bernier's former relationship became political fodder once again Friday after Montreal's La Presse newspaper reported that Julie Couillard lived with a man with ties to the Hells Angels three years ago.
Couillard's penchant for bikers and bad-boys was thought to have been limited to one husband and one live-in boyfriend before 1999.
But La Presse said she lived until 2005 with Robert Pepin, who the newspaper said owed money to a Hells Angels loanshark when he committed suicide last year and once pleaded guilty to trafficking stolen goods.
Sometime between the end of her relationship with Pepin and her appearance with Bernier at a cabinet swearing-in ceremony last summer, she began dating the minister.
Security experts and opposition parties say a relationship between a cabinet minister and a someone with criminal ties poses a handful of potential security risks.
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