JUICY COOL YEE HARD AN MAXIE BARNYARD

CANWEST NEWS SERVICE

Julie CouillardMuch as the federal government might like revelations about and from Julie Couillard to go away, the Quebec media are having a field day digging into her sensational past. This is a recent cover from the tabloid magazine 7 Jours in which she proclaims on the cover: “Maxime (Bernier) never loved me. Never!”

By Don Martin
Canwest News ServiceJulie Couillard is not just a pretty face anymore, innocently serving as the eye candy in a cabinet minister’s photo-ops.

The question now is whether she’s a spectator or a perpetrator in the increasingly queasy interactions between criminal, political and development interests in a Quebec building project.

The suspicion that Couillard targeted a federal cabinet minister’s aide and dated another minister to further her employer’s development interests is gaining momentum as non-stop revelations feed a frenzy of opposition demands for a deeper probe of her assorted affairs.

This has been a bad week for the ex-girlfriend of former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier, who revealed the minister’s carelessness with secret documents last month.

She was publicly named as a “known” person by RCMP at a Commons committee meeting, which brings the stigma of criminal implication, even though her status as an investigated security risk was not disclosed.

Public sentiment toward her soured after Couillard’s biker gang and political lobbying efforts embarrassed Public Works Minister Michael Fortier, who scrambled to fire a top aide Tuesday after learning Bernard Cotes relationship with Couillard included business discussions.

That’s when a random dating pattern seemed to jell into a potential purpose.

Kevlar Group, a Montreal real estate company bidding on a massive Quebec City building project, had initially denied she was employed as a realtor, but now admits she was on the payroll for unspecified purposes.

That might explain why she was suddenly widely seen in Montreal political circles and wily enough to know that making a $1, 000 Conservative party donation, even with a rubber cheque, was the key to getting invitations for up – close schmoozing with eligible ministers and their staff.

But while that might explain how she earned a salary, that doesn’t mean security concerns in the Couillard caper have been put to rest.

There is no longer almost a decade of separation between her Hell’s Angels biker gang connections and political entanglements.

The gap is down to a year, perhaps less, between her last-known shady boyfriend and her political dating debut, which included dinners with the prime minister, the public safety minister and having her photo taken with the U.S. president.

The only fixed position in this complicated soap opera belongs to the federal government, which continues to insist an internal Foreign Affairs investigation is sufficient and to dismiss opposition questions about her dating history as tabloid trash.

The internal investigation, now being delayed by foot – dragging until MPs adjourn for the summer, seemed an adequate initial response when this was simply a forgotten document story.

But the minute it was revealed her private relationship with an aide and a minister had a deliberate business purpose, particularly in a city where political benefits tend to flow based on personal connections, Couillard’s personal life became fair game for Commons curiosity.

Sure, some elements perplex. Bernier and Fortier do not get along personally or politically, so attempting to use one to influence the other was futile.

But the point is that Couillard’s circumstances have evolved — and the government line dismissing all other party questions as “sordid little inquiries” has not.

That stonewalling perception hasn’t been helped by having all summoned Conservative MPs refuse to appear before this week’s Commons committee that will feature Couillard’s testimony, if she agrees to show up, which seems doubtful.

The dots no longer line up as a straightforward connection. They zigzag through Conservative fundraisers, into MPs’ offices, through a senior minister’s heart and off into the world of political arm-twisting.

Now that Couillard’s biker gang history, political romances and related business interests have collided in a three-ringed media circus, arguments for a deeper probe no longer sound like a partisan witch hunt.

A beautiful woman working ministerial connections in a realm where the fastest way to a politician’s brain is through his zipper means this story has not yet been put to bed.

CANWEST NEWS SERVICE

Julie Couillard and Maxime BernierThis photo of Julie Couillard and Maxime Bernier was taken at Brian Mulroney’s book launch.