How would Harper even know this?
He has been saying for days that it was all a private affair he took no interest in.
Bernier quits, and Steve suddenly knows exactly what he did or did not do? Hardly seems probable.
So, now is he telling us he was lying about being unconcerned and took no interest?
Why can't Steve answer simple questions like whether this risky-background individual was ever vetted?
Harper looks like an idiot in all this
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Not only can Harper not possibly know what he is reported to have said here, this series of events raises an immense number of new questions.
This is serious stuff, not just political points. How were the documents reportedly left at her house able to be missing for five weeks?
The lady in question claimed her consultant found evidence of a bug. Who planted this?
It is not good intelligence procedure to put a bug in a mattress where there is too much noise, so who else could it be?
What is the story of this woman setting her eye on Bernier in the first place? She set her cap for him, and got him. Elements of the whole business smell of classic 'honey trap' techniques in espionage.
The biker gang with which she was involved certainly has an interest in the shape of things in narco-states like Afghanistan.
If the documents Bernier left at his mistress's were indeed NATO documents, they would have a very high security clearance and they would be checked in and out. How could they go missing for five weeks without follow-up?
If they were NATO documents, this is not just a Canadian security matter, it is international, and there will be consequences amongst our allies. America especially has no patience for this kind of stuff.
Harper's promised little internal Foreign Affairs investigation is utterly inadequate to the importance of these matters. These are matters for CSIS or the RCMP.
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I almost cannot believe the responses of obvious conservatives here.
Surely they are the ones who would be screaming about national security if the shoe were on the other foot.
This is not politics, it is the biggest security issue in Canada for decades, although of course it has political consequences.
Harper has completely blown it so far, insisting that these events are a personal matter. They are not.
This woman should have been thoroughly vetted. I know that at even the middle level of the armed forces, wives are vetted for a number of circumstances.
How much more should it have been done here with a minister whose security clearance is almost as high as it gets and a woman who is only his short-term mistress, one with a shady background?
This is almost a black joke. We really do look like a banana republic here. And if those documents were indeed NATO stuff, we are going to hear about it for a while to come.
