Bernier in hot seat after reports former girlfriend had alleged ties to biker gang

By: Merita Ilo, THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO - Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier may face some uncomfortable questions Thursday after widely published reports surfaced that a former girlfriend's past included alleged ties to a biker gang. As the allegations began to emerge, opposition leaders started raising questions about Bernier. Liberal Leader Stephane Dion said there's "certainly a concern" about the suggestions, which became the buzz of Parliament Hill on Wednesday.

"Mr. Bernier needs to explain because we want to know if there were any matters of national security involved," said Dion.

Bloc Quebecois Leader Gilles Duceppe signalled the party would raise the matter Thursday in the Commons.

Reports about Julie Couillard, who dated Bernier until recently, appeared in inumerous newspapers.

Television news programs also featured a report on Bernier and Couillard..

The information is based on the testimony of one of Couillard's former partners, who in 2003 claimed that Boucher was suspicious Couillard had convinced her boyfriend, Gilles Giguere, to work with police. Giguere was known as the right-hand man of Bob Savard, closely linked to Boucher.

The reports says Giguere was killed in 1996 and a year later Couillard married Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers biker gang. After their divorce in 1999, Sirois worked undercover for the police, testifying in court in 2003 about several of his associates, said the Globe.

The newspaper added that Sirois testified that Boucher had told him that at one point the suspicions against Couillard were so high that there was a contract on her and that "she was going to get it."

The public first learned about Bernier's relationship with Couillard in August 2007, when the couple, holding hands, walked into Rideau Hall where Bernier was sworn in as minister of foreign affairs. A Canadian Press photo capturing that moment was published in newspapers on Thursday.

Asked for comment as he hopped into his government car, Bernier said: "I don't have any. No".

"It's rumours," he added.

In an e-mail message Wednesday, a spokesman for Bernier said the questions about his former girlfriend were a private matter, and that any inquiries should be directed to Couillard.

The Globe also quoted a federal official as saying that Bernier only learned of Couillard's past after they broke up recently. "He was genuinely not aware until there was media interest."

Couillard dismissed the reports as politically motivated. She told the Globe that Sirois' testimony about her being a Hells Angels target was not credible.

"Some people are after Maxime Bernier and its my name that'll be dragged in the mud," she said, refusing to comment further.

The report has already raised questions about the process of background checks for people closely associated with cabinet ministers.

A spokeswoman for the Privy Council Office, which is in charge of background checks, told the Globe that security checks are conducted only on prospective cabinet ministers, not on their spouses or immediate family.

-With a report from Jim Bronskill in Ottawa.