The media and opposition parties apparently knew about Maxime Bernier's relationship with Julie Couillard several months before the infamous story broke.
However, since it involved Stockwell Day and his apparent penchant for hookers, Ms Couillard's infamous brothel, her past relationships with key members of organized crime and police corruption; everyone was walking on eggshells.
It wasn't until the ex-biker chic went to the press herself, when then foreign affairs minister, Bernier left sensitive top secret documents at her home for five weeks (and never even realized they were missing), that the frenzy began.
But of course, the press focused on the sensationalism of a sex scandal, while all but ignoring the fact that he was not only careless about sensitive material relating to his important post, but also the revelations that his ex-girlfriend brought forward.
Ms. Couillard stated on national television that Maxime Bernier told her that “the war in Afghanistan has nothing to do with building democracy in that country but has to do with the global control of the opium trade. It’s a drug war.” "the War In Afghanistan was about the control of the global opium trade, not democracy". The fact that she had been involved with high ranking members of the Canadian drug trade, should have been deemed vital information, since it shows a link. Instead most so-called journalists were more concerned with her cleavage than any real news.
UN anti-narcotics chief calls for wide-spectrum action against Afghan opium production
June 28, 2006
Afghanistan, the world’s largest opium producer, is already a “narco-economy” and risks becoming a “narco-state,” with drug production its largest employer, the top United Nations drugs and crime fighter warned today.
UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa called for a wide range of international action to curb production, trafficking, demand and accompanying corruption, terming the reduction of heroin demand “the mother of all drug control challenges.”
“Afghanistan has already become a narco-economy in the sense that drugs are now Afghanistan’s largest employer, income generator, source of capital, export and foreign investment,” UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa told a ministerial conference in Moscow on drug trafficking routes from the country.
“It has become a narco-society in the sense that many Afghans are now hooked on the drug money and now it risks becoming a narco-state,” he added. “Pyramids of protection now connect the upper world of the Afghan establishment to the underworld of Afghan mafias.”
Couillard had been married to Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers, who were said to control the drug business in Montreal for the Hells Angels. Obviously, Bernier had some information about the drug trade in Afghanistan, that no doubt peaked someone's interest.
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