Is it me, or does something smell fishy here? Today’s Globe & Mail ran an article online “Bernier posed to speak to liaison with Couillard”, which you can read here. I’ve saved it as a pdf in case they take it off the free-bee list.
Now our dear Max is in maximum saving-face-mode by saying he doesn’t remember reading the documents at Julie Couillard’s house, and doesn’t know how they got to be in her possession, thereby implying that she took them without his knowing. Well, whoever bugged her bed & house better speak up then, because wouldn’t it be all on tape? Where are you, Snoop-doggies?
What’s more, Bernier is hell-bent on running in the next election. It’s looking like he’s probably gotten a bunch of advisers to help him fight his way out of this corner. Seriously, if it were you or me, and we found out that someone had stuff they shouldn’t have, and it really looked like they probably broke into our attaché case and took it, wouldn’t you say immediately something like, “Hey! That stuff was locked in my case, and I DID NOT take it out while at her house.” Unless of course you’re lying, in which case, if you’re caught, that would really blow. Like Clinton. Only in his case, when he said about Monica Lewinsky, “I DID NOT have sexual relations with that woman,” we eventually learned the difference between figuratively and literally being blown. Of course, it didn’t really matter, because he was simply being a dog, an opportunist, and amoral. So, Mr. Bumbling Bernier is more tactful in saying he “doesn’t remember” reading or leaving those documents lying around at Julie Couillard’s place.
Okay, so maybe he was drinking, or smoking weed, or experiencing an otherwise euphoric sense of wellbeing and lost his mind because it drifted to other body parts. So, why is it then that he didn’t notice they were missing for FIVE WEEKS!!?? (Not the body parts, the documents.) Didn’t he open his attaché case, or plastic grocery bag if he didn’t have a briefcase, and look for the files and wonder, “now where the heck are they?” And after several days of looking high and low for them, wouldn’t he have alerted his staff that they were missing? Would there be a record of the missing documents?
Whereas Julie Couillard has had connections to organized crime, Maxime Bernier left some important documents at her place for five weeks, and didn’t notice they were missing. He should be responsible for the government property that he’s been given the privilege of being in charge of. But, he didn’t take his responsibilities seriously, left classified material at his ex-girlfriend’s house, whether taken or left, and didn’t notice they were missing for five weeks. That, my friends, is incompetence, and I don’t know if any speech writer or adviser will ever be able to explain that away.
Which leaves us back at square one: We’re left with the question, how come Maxime Bernier didn’t notice his classified documents were missing for five weeks?
Could it be that he left them with her, and they had an altercation, and she retaliated by claiming the documents were forgotten at her house? If that’s the case, then they’re both naughty.
I think it would be better for Max-man to tell the truth and get it over and done with. I have more respect for someone who’s willing to humble themselves, tell the truth, admit their mistake and then redeem themselves. After all, if that happens, what more is there to dig up? The opposition would be derailed, the smoke would eventually blow over, and who knows, he might even be re-elected as “the guy who seeks truth above all.” He could even wear a cape. It might be a good look.
