Month: August 2008

For writers everywhere: Giles Coren's cri du coeur

Giles Coren is a writer and, apparently, a temperamental one at that. Since 1999, he's been writing restaurant reviews for the The Times of London. Then one day, a sub-editor or, as we call them over here, a copy editor, made a slight change to one of his pieces prior to publishing.

Coren was upset enough about that he wrote a letter to the editor — of the competing Guardian.

His cri du coeur will, I suspect, touch writers everywhere. And if it doesn't do that, it'll probably make you laugh.

A note to the wonderful copy editors I work with, have worked with or may work with: You are special people and, if you click through on the following link, you should infer nothing about our relationship 🙂 (Tip o' the toque to Gary Dimmock, for this. I'll bet he, too, thinks copy editors are special, wonderful people.)

So without further ado, read on (A caution to sensitive readers: Coren is, as he says, “mightily pissed off”, and the language is a bit blue.)

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The horse race: Cons lead by a nose heading into the fall …

I report today on a new Ipsos Reid poll, a poll taken this week as the Conservatives were meeting near Quebec City during which Prime Minister Stephen Harper to “fish or cut bait”. (An aside: Would Dion be choosing to have an election if he fished or if cut bait. And, as my friend Paul Wells sort of pointed out: If the bait was already in the water, wasn't Dion already fishing? But I digress …)

The poll finds that Canadians are hardly moved by all the back-and-forth about the green shift and Harper's attacks: 34 per cent would vote Conservative; 30 per cent would vote Liberal.

In Ontario and Quebec, the Liberals still lead the Conservatives. It's close in Ontario, not so much in Quebec.

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Couillard to Bernier: "You destroyed my life!"

Dimitri Soudas to Maxime Bernier: “This is a serious situation!”

Those quotes and more are part of the fascinating timeline contained in the report into L'Affaire Bernier. I don't think this report is good news for the government and I know that because governments tend not to release “good news” reports after 6 pm on a Friday before a long weekend in the middle of summer.

You can read the whole report for yourself and I have summarized the good bits here from the timeline in that report:



  • March 31 — NATO Summit Conference background books, classified as SECRET are hand-delivered to a Bernier assistant.
  • Apr 1 — Cue cards and a Scenario book are hand-delivered to Bernier’s office. Bernier and his party depart for Frankfurt, Germany where they board a flight to Bucharest Romania.
  • Apr 2 — Bernier attends the NATO Summit Conference. Bernier says he left briefing material in his hotel room in an unlocked black briefcase.
  • Apr 3 — Bernier attends the second day of the summit. Again, the notes marked SECRET are left in his unlocked briefcase in his hotel room.
  • Apr 4 — Bernier’s chauffeur leaves Ottawa for Montreal to await the Minister’s return. He is carrying Bernier’s ski clothes. Bernier arrives in Montreal, collects his luggage, and drives to Julie Couillard’s residence in Laval, Que.
  • April 4, 11:30 p.m. — Bernier arrives at Couillard’s. He brings his luggage and the briefcase containing the briefing notes into Couillard’s residence and leaves them in the entrance hallway. Bernier retires for the evening.
  • April 5, 7:30 a.m. — Bernier leaves Couillard’s with his luggage and the briefcase containing the briefing notes. He places them in the trunk of his car. He picks up his daughters at his ex-wife’s house in Westmount, Quebec and travels to his brother’s residence in La Prairie, Que. He leaves the briefcase in this brother’s basement and departs for Bromont, Que. to go skiing.
  • April 5, 3 p.m. — Bernier returns to his brother’s residence.
  • April 6, 5 p.m. — Bernier leaves Bromont with his suitcases and the briefcase; he drops his daughters off in Westmount and drives to his residence in Ottawa.
  • April 7, 8 a.m. — He returns to work in his office. Hands over the contents of the briefcase to his assistants. Neither he nor his staff notice any missing documents.
  • April 20 — Ian Brodie, then the prime minister’s chief of staff, telephones Bernier to alert him to rumours about Couillard’s past associated with members of Montreal biker gang. Bernier tells Brodie he has no knowledge of Couillard’s past. Bernier offers to call Couillard to put those rumours to rest but Brodie tells Bernier it will not be necessary “as it would be upsetting if the rumours were unsubstantiated.” Bernier has a conversation with Dimitri Soudas, the prime minister’s deputy press secretary and his Quebec Advisor. Soudas advises Bernier that “this is a serious situation and the media will likely report on the rumours.”
  • April 22 — Bernier attends a fundraiser in Montreal where Couillard is present. Bernier and Couillard have a cocktail. Couillard assures Bernier that the rumours about her past are not true and makes no mention of the missing NATO documents.
  • May 8 — After a newspaper report is published detailing her association with Montreal biker gangs, an upset Couillard phones Bernier, crying, “You destroyed my life! The journalists are here! Why didn’t you tell me?” She makes no mention of the missing NATO documents.
  • May 25, 2 p.m. — Bernier’s chief of staff Aaron Gairdner takes a call from Couillard’s lawyer, advising him that she has received government documents from Couillard with instructions that they be returned tot he government. Gairdner dispatches a government driver to collect the documents from Montreal and return them to Ottawa.
  • May 25, 5:20 p.m. — The driver arrives in Montreal and takes possession of “a large sealed, brown envelope” addressed “confidential” to the Minister. The driver returns to Ottawa.
  • May 25, 6 p.m. — Gairdner tells Bernier about the documents and for the first time presents Bernier with options about resigning.
  • May 25, 8 p.m. — The driver arrives back in Ottawa and picks up Bernier and Gairdner at a dinner event.
  • May 25, 10 p.m. — Bernier, with Gairdner present, open the sealed envelope to discover the NATO documents. Bernier gives the documents to Gairdner and tells him he will inform Prime Minister Harper in the morning.
  • May 26, morning — Harper with Bernier present meet with Ukrainian President Victor Yushchenko.
  • May 26, 2:15 p.m. — As Question Period gets underway in the House of Commons, Bernier meets Harper in Harper’s office. Harper tells Bernier he will consult with the Privy Council Office and asks the Minister to draft a letter of resignation.
  • May 26, 2:30 p.m. — Bernier tells his chief of staff he is resigning. Gairdner takes the documents to Brodie, Harper’s chief of staff.
  • May 26, after 2:30 p.m. — Bernier meets with his staff and composes his letter of resignation. In it, he says he is resigning for failing to protect the security of government documents. He instructs his department staff to conduct a review of how it happened.
  • May 26, 6 p.m. — Harper announces Bernier’s resignation and then heads to the airport for an official visit to Western Europe.
  • May 26, 6:30 p.m. — Bernier meets with his political staff to inform them of the incident that led to his resignation.
  • May 26, 8:14 p.m. — An interview with Couillard is broadcast on the French language network TVA. She says Bernier left the documents at her home.
  • May 30 — The department of foreign affairs hires an outside firm, BMCI, to conduct the investigation.
  • Aug. 1-6 p.m. — The results of the investigation are published.

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What Bernier left behind

Here is a description of the documents Maxime Bernier left behind at Julie Couillard’s residence:

“The information provided to the Minister Bernier comprised a NATO Summit Background Book, a pocket-sized NATO Summit Program “Scenario” Book and a Media Spokesperson’s Book.

The NATO Summit Background Book was marked SECRET and comprised 26 different documents at various levels – SECRET (3 documents), CONFIDENTIAL (15 documents), PROTECTED (2 documents), UNCLASSIFIED (4 documents) NATO RESTRICTED (1 letter of invitation), NATO RESTRICTED (1 document originating in the Department, not from NATO). The NATO Summit Program “Scenario” Book was marked SECRET and comprised 22 documents which were not individually marked with a security designation. The Media Spokesperson’s Book was UNCLASSIFIED.”

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