OTTAWA - The woman who brought down Stephen Harper's foreign affairs minister has cost his Conservative cabinet another senior employee.

Public Works Minister Michael Fortier confirmed Wednesday that he dismissed senior Quebec adviser Bernard Cote after learning that Cote briefly dated Julie Couillard last year while she was attempting to win a government contract.

Cote had to resign because of a perceived conflict of interest, since Public Works was handling the building contracts Couillard was bidding on, Fortier said.

Fortier told reporters that Cote, "should have actually recused himself from this matter, which he didn't do, hence his resignation."

Couillard sparked the resignation of foreign minister Maxime Bernier two weeks ago when she went public with the fact her former paramour had forgotten classified NATO briefing documents at her Montreal home for more than a month.

Harper said Bernier had to quit because he breached cabinet rules on handling sensitive documents, nothing else.

The prime minister has steadfastly maintained that Couillard's past associations with criminal bikers do not pose a security concern and that who ministers date is a strictly private matter.

But senior RCMP officials told a Commons committee on Tuesday that ministers associating with a person who had extensive links to biker gangs would be considered a relevant security concern.

The Mounties also said that Couillard was known to them before her past biker liaisons became public knowledge last month in the media.

According to newspaper accounts, Cote and Couillard dated briefly in the spring of 2007, shortly before she began her year-long relationship with Bernier.






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