Harper Accepts Resignation of Foreign Minister Over Security Breach
By Alexander Panetta, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA – Prime Minister Stephen Harper has accepted the resignation of his embattled foreign affairs minister over an apparent security breach involving secret military documents.
Harper told an extraordinary news conference on Parliament Hill on Monday evening 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 a French-language television station.
“This is about one thing and that is a failure to uphold expected standards on government documents,” Harper said in the Commons foyer.
“It is a very serious mistake – regardless of who the minister is, regardless of personal life – to leave classified documents in an unsecured location.”
Two sources told The Canadian Press that Bernier left sensitive classified material at Couillard’s apartment, her lawyer notified the Foreign Affairs department about the documents on the weekend, and the material was returned.
One source said the package included a mix of classified material and briefing notes publicly available through the Access to Information Act.
The package, he said, was preparation material for Bernier’s trip to the NATO summit in Bucharest – where Canada announced its intention to remain in Afghanistan until 2011.
Just hours before the axe fell on Bernier, the prime minister had dismissed the whole affair.
“I have no intention to comment on a minister’s former girlfriend,” the prime minister said to wrap up a news conference earlier Monday with visiting Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko. “I don’t take this subject seriously.”
He’s taking it seriously now.
The prime minister announced that David Emerson, the international trade minister, will take over as interim foreign affairs minister. Harper left late Monday night on a European diplomatic trip.
Opposition MPs were baying for further details that could prove extremely embarrassing for the Conservative government.
Liberal MP Ralph Goodale said Harper has been “very dismissive” of the Bernier-Couillard affair for weeks.
“That raises some questions about his judgment,” Goodale said of the prime minister.
Bernier has been under fire for a series of gaffes in his role as Canada’s top diplomat, and the revelation that his girlfriend of the past year had once been romantically linked to several men with links to the Hells Angels had security experts – and political opponents – asking whether she had undergone a security check.
The question remains unanswered.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said the latest revelation was “the straw that broke the camel’s back” for Bernier’s cabinet career.
It was with great fanfare that Bernier was sworn in last summer to a cabinet portfolio once held by Lester Pearson, Joe Clark and Jean Chretien. Accompanying him to the ritzy ceremony was his new girlfriend, Couillard.
He was touted as a rising star in the Conservative firmament – a young, telegenic, bilingual Quebecer, a bona-fide right-winger from a province dominated by leftist politics.
He was described by some as potential leadership material.
But when he was moved from an economic portfolio at Industry to a post that required diplomatic finesse and a grasp of global issues, the gaffes began piling up.
Bernier met the Haitian president and then got his name wrong. He helped quash efforts to replace the governor of Kandahar by discussing them publicly. He promised aid for Burma on a plane that wasn’t available.
Other ministers were sometimes asked to speak on sensitive foreign-affairs issues while the minister was sidelined.
A Conservative staffer recently said there were concerns immediately after the House of Commons returned from the 2007 summer recess that he was in over his head.