‘Mad Max’ quits after a gaffe too far

One of Canada's most senior politicians, Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier (pictured, right), has been forced to resign after leaving classified Nato summit documents at the home of ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard (left), a former Hell's Angels moll with links to the criminal underworld.

Bernier, 45, who has been dubbed 'Mad Max' after a string of foreign policy gaffes – among them, promising to send aid to Burma on a plane that didn't exist – left his post on Monday just hours before a Canadian TV station broadcast an interview with 38-year-old Couillard. In it, she revealed how Bernier had left the documents, described as classified "prep material" for last month's Nato summit in Bucharest, on a coffee table at her apartment. "Maxime came to my place, and the document stayed there," said Couillard.

It appears her revelation was a simple act of revenge: Bernier dropped his former lover a few weeks ago after a series of damaging stories about her ties to Montreal's violent biker gangs appeared in the Canadian press. It was revealed that she had spent three years with Gilles Giguere, a Montreal criminal who was gunned down in 1996 when he decided to become an informer. She then married Stephane Sirois, an enforcer for a Hell's Angel-affiliate called the Rockers, who later testified against other bikers.

Bernier met Couillard at a dinner party in Montreal last summer and within a month had her listed as his official partner for travel funded by the taxpayer. He told her: "I can't switch girlfriends like I change shirts, so you have to be my official girlfriend for at least a year, in spite of what might happen between us." She first attracted public attention when she accompanied him to his swearing-in as Foreign Minister wearing a low-cut dress.

She also caught the eye of President Bush at a reception in New York. As the couple approached, Bush said: "Maxime, well, well, well, haven't you been keeping good company?"