The Conservatives are not giving an inch when it comes to fighting attempts by the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois to make Maxime Bernier's personal life an issue of public debate:

Dismissing opposition leaders as "busybodies," the Conservative government said yesterday the fact Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier recently dated a woman once linked to Quebec biker gangs is a private matter that is "none of your business."

A bitter debate rife with moral indignation exploded in Parliament after the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois attempted to question Mr. Bernier over reports his ex-girlfriend, 38-year-old Julie Couillard, was once married to a Quebec biker gang member.

Now when I first heard about this, I had to admit that there seemed to be a reason to be concerned.  I didn't know anything about Julie Couillard, but if she had been involved with criminal activity with biker gangs, then maybe some questions needed to be asked.

But I didn't know anything about Couillard, and I've been too busy to do much research.

In Chantal Herbert's column today, we learn that there is no reason to be nervous about Julie Couillard:

Julie Couillard has no criminal record. She has never been charged with criminal activity and some of Quebec's crack investigative reporters failed to find evidence that she has had links with bikers since a 1999 divorce.

So essentially, the questions have already been asked and answered.

If that's the case, shame on the press for bringing this up...except that the press didn't bring it up.  The Liberals and the Bloc Quebecois called in favours or otherwise coerced the media to get this non-story out in the open:

On Wednesday, Duceppe expressed concerns over reports that Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier's former girlfriend once had ties with biker gangs. But the inside story is that, behind the scenes, the Bloc (and the Liberals) had been actively lobbying the media to break the news for weeks.

Chantal Herbert's statement is just that -- a statement with no concrete evidence.  No leaked emails or first person accounts of this alleged lobbying effort.  But taking it at face value, we have another example of the opposition, and the Liberals in particular, manufacturing pseudo-scandals in the absence of any credible opposition position.

The first news story archived in Google was from the Liberal-friendly Toronto Star.

I'd like to know who was lobbying the press.  I'd like to know what finally convinced the press to go with this, if indeed it took "weeks" to convince them.

That strikes me as the more interesting story.

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