MPs prepare to grill RCMP
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The embattled RCMP could get another beating today, as MPs prepare to grill officials from the national police force on whether the government was properly red-flagged about Julie Couillard's shady past.

Hearings into the Maxime Bernier security breach scandal begin on Parliament Hill with testimony from top Mounties. Opposition MPs will demand answers on what information the RCMP knew about Couillard, who has past ties to organized crime, and if it was passed on to the highest levels of government.

Liberal MP and public safety critic Ujjal Dosanjh said the RCMP and CSIS must always be "on the lookout" for threats to national security, especially when they are so close to the inner circle of federal power.

The RCMP should have known of Couillard's background and flagged potential risks, and Prime Minister Stephen Harper should have acted on it by telling Bernier to end the relationship or quit cabinet.

"Did the RCMP or CSIS ever alert anyone in government, including the Prime Minister? And if they didn't, and they had this information, why not?" Dosanjh asked. "That's a total neglect of their duty. If they didn't have much of this information, there are serious questions about the ability of our agencies to do their job."

The Commons committee called Harper, Bernier and Couillard to testify, but yesterday the PM confirmed he has no plan to show.

"I have no interest in participating in a partisan circus," he said. "Obviously, the work of the Opposition parties, if they want to go ahead with this, it is their right. As for the issue itself, I said I have no information on the security of this Canadian citizen and it is not in the nature of this country for the Prime Minister to investigate private individuals."

NDP MP Penny Priddy will also have tough questions for the RCMP on whether the force fulfilled its responsibility to advise the government of a potential national security threat.

"It would be difficult for me to believe they wouldn't know," she said. "If they knew, and did not pass that information on, that is a significant problem in terms of the RCMP's responsibilities and the risks to our country."

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RCMP knew Couillard's biker ties; won't say if Ottawa was warned
House starts hearing into security risks
CAMPBELL CLARK AND TU THANH HA

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

June 11, 2008 at 1:34 AM EDT

OTTAWA AND TORONTO — Senior RCMP officers confirmed for the first time Tuesday that Julie Couillard was known to the force before her past biker ties emerged in the media – and said they would alert the government if a minister's spouse or girlfriend had a relationship to organized crime figures that worried them.

But they refused to say whether they brought any concerns about former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier's ex-girlfriend to officials in the Privy Council Office, the central government department that reports to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

At a hearing before a parliamentary committee, two senior RCMP officers who oversee organized-crime and national-security investigations picked their words carefully. They refused to reveal details about the Bernier-Couillard affair, arguing that discussing specific cases could jeopardize investigations or breach individuals' privacy.

But while Mr. Harper has insisted that the past of a minister's girlfriend is nobody's business, the officers said they would look into organized-crime ties of a minister's spouse or girlfriend if they became aware of them – and report it to the government if what they found raised concerns.

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Raf Souccar, Assistant Commissioner of the RCMP leaves following his appearance before the Commons Public Safety committee looking into the Bernier affair on Parliament Hill in Ottawa Tuesday June 10, 2008. (Tom Hanson/The Canadian Press)

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“If such a situation comes to our attention, and it causes us worry, absolutely we would inform the Privy Council,” said Raf Souccar, the RCMP's assistant commissioner for federal and international operations.

Mr. Souccar also said the national police force would consider it relevant to look into the case if they knew Ms. Couillard had recent links with the bikers or Mafia. “That would be relevant, yes.”

Mr. Bernier was forced out of cabinet on May 26, just before an interview with Ms. Couillard revealed that he had left classified documents at her Montreal apartment at least five weeks before.

But Mr. Harper has continued to insist that Ms. Couillard's past relationships with criminal bikers were private matters.

Mr. Souccar also confirmed yesterday that Ms. Couillard was known to the force before media reported her past biker ties, but didn't give details.

He said that the RCMP has databases that allow them to search names of individuals linked to investigations but never charged with a crime – but he did not say whether such checks were conducted on Ms. Couillard.

Court documents indicate that in 1998, Ms. Couillard and her home were placed under surveillance during an RCMP drug investigation.

Mr. Souccar, however, said he did not know precisely when the Mounties made the connection that the woman dating Mr. Bernier was the Julie Couillard linked to bikers.

Both he and Bob Paulson, the assistant commissioner for national security and criminal investigations, said that they saw her accompany Mr. Bernier to his swearing in as foreign affairs minister last August, but did not immediately draw a link.

“I personally did not know her, although, I think as [Mr. Souccar] has indicated, the RCMP knows Madame Couillard,” Mr. Paulson said.

A former CSIS agent, Michel Juneau-Katsuya, testified that he believes an RCMP investigation is required because media reports and Ms. Couillard's own words indicate that she not only had extensive relationships with criminal figures, but that she sought contacts with politicians and Mr. Bernier in particular.

Organized-crime groups have tried to place moles inside government institutions, he testified, and the pattern of her behaviour seemed like “a classic recruitment operation.”

The RCMP officers would not say whether they are investigating the Bernier-Couillard affair or Ms. Couillard.

But Mr. Paulson said the RCMP can be trusted to be on top of concerns that organized crime might try to infiltrate government.

“We're aware of that, and we do a lot to try and prevent that,” he said.

Le Devoir has reported that, in 2007, Ms. Couillard took part in a fundraising cocktail party for the Tory riding association of Châteauguay-Saint-Constant, south of Montreal.

The paper reported that she asked riding association president André Turcot if government officials and business people would attend, saying she wanted contacts for her real estate business – although the Montreal company she said she represented has denied that she worked for them.

Mr. Turcot told the paper she donated $1,000 – but the cheque bounced.

Before that, however, it was not only links with bikers that brought her to the attention of police.According to court documents, she and her home were under surveillance during an RCMP drug investigation in 1998.

Tipped by a confidential source, the Mounties also watched as she visited her father's apartment in Laval. Days later, they raided the flat and found 496 cannabis plants, four boxes of dried marijuana leaves and a hydroponic installation.

Ms. Couillard testified that she sometimes paid her father's rent and visited him once or twice a week but didn't notice the grow-op. Her father later pleaded guilty to drug possession.

At the time of the drug raid, she was married to Stéphane Sirois, an ex-member of the Hells Angels affiliate, the Rockers. She had previously dated Gilles Giguère, a loan shark associated with the Hells Angels who was killed in 1996. The couple were arrested by the Wolverine anti-biker squad in 1995, although Ms. Couillard was not charged.

Between 1991 and 1993, she dated Tony Volpato, a drug importer associated with the Mafia, La Presse has reported.

But by 2004, Ms. Couillard, who had dabbled in modelling and real-estate, wanted to be involved in politics. In an application to have her driver's licence reinstated, she said she did promotional work that involved “special events such as volunteering for federal elections.”

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Courtesy of "The Sixth Family" by Adrian HumphreysJulie Couillard has now been romantically linked to Montreal mobster and convicted drug trafficker Tony Volpato, seen in July, 1991, on right, with Vito Rizzuto, the Montreal Mafia's boss, on the left ...

OTTAWA - Conservative MPs will not testify at a House of Commons committee probing the resignation of Maxime Bernier, who stepped down as foreign affairs minister last week after admitting he left classified government documents at a former girlfriend's house.

"Neither Maxime Bernier nor any government MPs will engage in this political circus," said a senior government source, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The decision could rob the committee of the chance to question many of the major figures in the affair. The standing committee on public safety and national security, the majority of whose members are opposition MPs, had hoped to grill several government members, including Mr. Bernier, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.

No MP can be legally compelled to testify in front of a Commons committee. Hearings are to begin June 10. The committee may still hear from Julie Couillard, Mr. Bernier's former girlfriend, who has not been seen in Ottawa since his resignation but earlier indicated she would be willing to testify.

Details of Ms. Couillard's controversial past continued to emerge yesterday, when La Presse reported she was romantically linked in the early 1990s to Tony Volpato, a close friend of Mafia leader Frank Cotroni.

Ms. Couillard was in her early 20's. Volpato was nearly twice her age.

At the time, Volpato was under investigation for cigarette smuggling involving the Kahnawake Indian reserve, La Presse reported. He was found guilty in 1997 and fined $8,000 in connection with the affair.

That same year, he was sentenced to six years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to import 180 kilograms of cocaine.

Ms. Couillard had previously been linked to a number of motorcycle gang members. Her first love, Gilles Giguere, was killed in a gangland execution three months before the couple was to marry. Mr. Giguere was the right-hand man of loan-shark Robert Savard, a close friend of Quebec Hells Angels boss Maurice Boucher.

She later married and divorced Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers, a Hells Angels puppet gang. He would became a Crown witness against his former associates. A third partner of Ms. Couillard's, Robert Pepin, hanged himself last May after becoming heavily indebted to loan sharks linked to the underworld.

Opposition MPs maintain the government should have known of Ms. Couillard's past, and should investigate the possibility of a security breach during her relationship with Mr. Bernier.

Serge Menard, Bloc Quebecois MP and former justice and public security minister in Quebec, said it is "implausible" that police or security services never alerted anyone in the government about Ms. Couillard's past relationships.

Mr. Menard said that kind of information is kept in databases kept by police forces and a simple check could have alerted authorities to a possible problem. He said he is contemplating calling for that information to be tabled at the committee hearing.

About the time of his reported liaisons with Ms. Couillard, Volpato was meeting with significant underworld figures, including Vito Rizzuto, the powerful boss of the Mafia in Montreal.

In a series of photographs secretly taken by police in July, 1991, Volpato is seen with both Rizzuto, who is now serving a 10-year sentence in the United States for killing three rival gangsters, and Juan Ramon Fernandez, a career criminal who was Rizzuto's close confidant and much-feared enforcer.

Nastional Post Canwest news service with files from Elizabeth Thompson and Adrian Humphreys

Couillard accused of influence peddling as details emerge about first date
DANIEL LEBLANC

Globe and Mail Update

June 12, 2008 at 11:28 AM EDT

OTTAWA — The Couillard affair mushroomed into a case of alleged influence peddling yesterday, following revelations that two Conservative officials discussed a major federal project last year with a woman with past ties to biker gangs.

Federal officials confirmed that Julie Couillard raised the Kevlar Group's bid on a project worth an estimated $30-million in Quebec City with former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier and ex-public works adviser Bernard Côté.

The role of Kevlar in the saga appears pivotal, with sources saying last night that it was Philippe Morin, a co-chair of Kevlar, who introduced Mr. Bernier and Ms. Couillard to one another in April of 2007. The then-industry minister and Ms. Couillard ended the evening with drinks at Mr. Bernier's hotel, Ms. Couillard said.

Mr. Morin could not be reached for comment last night.

Enlarge Image
Maxime Bernier arrives to be sworn in as the new Minister of Foreign Affairs accompanied by Julie Couillard during a ceremony at Rideau Hall in Ottawa on in this Aug 14, 2007 file photo. (The Canadian Press)

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The revelation raises questions about Kevlar's handling of its bid and Mr. Bernier's role in the major project in the provincial capital north of his riding of Beauce.

The Conservatives came to office in 2006 with a promise to clean up lobbying activities in Ottawa. Ms. Couillard, who lived with two men with ties to the Hells Angels in the 1990s, is not registered as a lobbyist, which she would have to be if she were paid to promote the interests of a company.

Ms. Couillard is affiliated with Kevlar as a real-estate agent, but her role in the Quebec City project was unclear yesterday, as Kevlar officials and Ms. Couillard's lawyer refused to elaborate on the nature of her relationship with the firm. There is also no entry in the federal lobbyist registry for Kevlar.

A spokesperson for Kevlar Group Inc. president René Bellerive reiterated that Ms. Couillard had never been a company employee, but Mr. Bellerive told La Presse this week that Ms. Couillard was, in fact, associated with the company. She obtained her licence to be a real-estate agent and Mr. Bellerive agreed to "hitch" her licence to his real-estate broker's permit at the same time as the company was pushing its bid for the federal development contract in Quebec City.

The opposition said the ongoing scandal, which has led to the resignations of both Mr. Bernier and Mr. Côté, is highlighting the Harper government's inability to manage a major ethical crisis. Senior RCMP officers confirmed two days ago that Ms. Couillard was known to the force before her past biker ties emerged in the news media in May.

The officers told members of Parliament they would look into organized-crime ties of a minister's spouse or girlfriend if they became aware of them - and report it to the government if what they found raised concerns.

However, federal officials said that the RCMP never warned the Privy Council Office in relation to Ms. Couillard.

Liberal MP Ujjal Dosanjh said the Harper government has to call an independent inquiry into the entire matter.

"The government must reassure Canadians that the long tentacles of organized crime have not reached into the Departments of Foreign Affairs and Public Works and beyond," Mr. Dosanjh said.

Liberal Senate Leader Céline Hervieux-Payette said in the Red Chamber that the inquiry has to look into "the possibility of influence peddling" at Public Works.

The Bloc Québécois called on Mr. Harper and Mr. Bernier to appear before the public-safety committee of the House, which launched a probe into the affair this week.

"We're talking about influence with a minister; we're talking about an attempt to obtain a contract," Bloc Leader Gilles Duceppe told reporters.

Mr. Bernier resigned as foreign affairs minister last month after leaving confidential documents at Ms. Couillard's home for up to seven weeks. A senior federal official confirmed yesterday that Ms. Couillard also discussed Kevlar's bid on the federal project with Mr. Bernier.

In an interview with Beauce radio station CHEQ-FM, Mr. Bernier broke his silence of recent weeks, saying the time since his resignation has been "mentally tough."

He said he spent time with his family, but also in a solitary retreat, to recharge his batteries. He thanked his supporters in his riding and vowed to stay in politics, while refusing to discuss his relationship with Ms. Couillard or his mishandling of the classified documents.

Mr. Côté, a senior staffer in the office of Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, was forced to quit Tuesday after it emerged that he had also discussed the Quebec City project last year with Ms. Couillard, while the two were dating.

Mr. Côté did not recuse himself from the file at the time, and he resigned after the matter came to the attention of his minister two days ago.

"There is an appearance of conflict, and I can't accept that," Mr. Fortier told reporters.

A federal official said that Mr. Côté and Ms. Couillard met through a joint acquaintance, and that Ms. Couillard had raised her plans for real-estate development in the Caribbean.

Another federal source said Mr. Bernier seemed anxious in recent months to introduce Ms. Couillard to his cabinet colleagues, pointing to a dinner date Ms. Couillard and Mr. Bernier had with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and his wife, Valorie, at Hy's Steakhouse in March.

The source said the couples spoke about ordinary things, such as sports and children, but that Mrs. Day was left with a less-than-favourable impression and that her "woman's intuition" made her skeptical of Ms. Couillard.

In an attempt to contain the growing damage from the Couillard affair, Conservative officials said yesterday there was no inside intervention in favour of the Kevlar bid.

"Mr. Bernier clearly did not accept to be lobbied," a senior official said.

With reports from Lori McLeod, Jane Taber and Rhéal Séguin

The agent, the developer and the federal ministry: a chronology

April, 2006 Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government tables the Federal Accountability Act, which toughens provisions on lobbying and creates a Commissioner of Lobbying with increased powers to investigate unregistered lobbyists.

December, 2006 Public Works announces it needs a building in Quebec City to house 750 bureaucrats. Kevlar Group Inc. is one of 25 bidders.

March-April, 2007 Julie Couillard dates Bernard Côté, a senior adviser in the office of Public Works Minister Michael Fortier. Mr. Côté has years of experience in real estate, while Ms. Couillard is finishing her courses in that field. During their relationship, the two discuss the Kevlar proposal.

April, 2007 Ms. Couillard dines with the then-industry minister Maxime Bernier, and the two start dating, having been introduced to each other by Kevlar Group co-chair Philippe Morin. That month, Ms. Couillard attends a $1,000-a-head Conservative fundraiser south of Montreal, where Mr. Fortier is present.

August, 2007 Mr. Bernier is sworn in as foreign affairs minister, appearing at Rideau Hall with Ms. Couillard. Shortly afterward, Mr. Bernier designates Ms. Couillard as his spouse for the purpose of domestic travel on his MP's budget.

September, 2007 Mr. Bernier and Ms. Couillard attend the annual Diplomatic Forum, held last year in New Brunswick and attended by the cream of the diplomatic corps, including the U.S. and Chinese ambassadors to Canada.

Fall, 2007 Ms. Couillard is photographed meeting U.S. President George W. Bush in New York.

December, 2007 Ms. Couillard and Mr. Bernier break up, but the two continue to be seen in public, fulfilling what Ms. Couillard said was a one-year mandate to project an air of stability in the minister's private life.

February, 2008 Ms. Couillard appears as the minister's date at the Politics and the Pen gala in Ottawa.

March 31, 2008 Mr. Bernier and Ms. Couillard are spotted having dinner at Hy's restaurant in Ottawa with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and his wife, Val.

April, 2008 Mr. Bernier leaves classified documents at Ms. Couillard's house

May 7, 2008 Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe publicly discusses Ms. Couillard's past ties to members of the Hell's Angels, asking whether the government conducted the appropriate security checks. Mr. Harper responds the next day that the relationship between Mr. Bernier and Ms. Couillard is nobody's business, and blasts opposition leaders as "gossipy busybodies" for asking questions on the matter.

May 26, 2008 Mr. Bernier resigns as minister of foreign affairs after Ms. Couillard reveals that he left confidential documents at her house for up to seven weeks.

June 10, 2008 RCMP officials appear before a parliamentary committee and confirm that Ms. Couillard's past ties to bikers were known to the RCMP even before she started making national headlines. Designated traveller status for Ms. Couillard was formally removed by the government.

Yesterday Mr. Côté's resignation is made public after he tells his superiors he discussed Kevlar's bid for the development deal with Ms. Couillard, while not recusing himself afterward.

The Canadian Press