OTTAWA - A former top adviser to Prime Minister Stephen Harper used his connections to meet four times last year with federal decision makers in order to discuss a project involving a company linked to his 22-year-old girlfriend.
The Canadian Press has learned Bruce Carson met officials from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs four times between September and December 2010.
As recently as Jan. 11 of this year, Carson was meeting with senior political staff in the office of Indian Affairs Minister John Duncan to discuss a First Nations water filtration program and a company called H20 Pros, officials in Duncan's office said.
According to an investigation by the Aboriginal People's Television Network, Michele McPherson signed a contract last Aug. 31 that would entitle her to 20 per cent of the project's gross water system sales.
APTN also reported Thursday that McPherson worked as an Ottawa escort who went by the name Leanna VIP.
On Friday, The Canadian Press called the number for Leanna listed on the escort agency's website, asking for Michele McPherson. A woman who gave her name as Jenna and claimed to be a family member said McPherson wasn't available, and offered to take a message.
Neither McPherson nor her mother Christine, who also works with H20 Pros, have returned repeated calls and emails.
Carson has also indicated he would not comment further while the RCMP was investigating.
Duncan's office said the January meeting involved Kym Purchase, the minister's director of policy, and Ted Yeomans, his director of parliamentary affairs. McPherson did not attend the meeting.
Yeomans is a former assistant to MP Pierre Poilievre, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's parliamentary secretary.
"Mr. Carson briefed the staff on the proposed water project," Michelle Yao, Duncan's director of communications, said in an email. "Staff provided publicly available information to Bruce Carson and recommended he work directly with First Nations."
Yao described the meeting as standard practice. "Minister's staff regularly attend meetings with individuals and stakeholders," she said.
Indian Affairs said it has not awarded any contracts to H20 Pros.
The Prime Minister's Office said this week it has asked the RCMP to investigate the APTN allegations that Carson lobbied the department.
Critics say the real scandal is the fact a former senior adviser to Harper was able to get five meetings in as many months with top bureaucrats and political staff, all without violating the Conservative government's vaunted Federal Accountability Act.
Another law, the Conflict of Interest Act, also generally doesn't apply more than a year after political staff leave for the private sector, said Duff Conacher, the co-ordinator of Ottawa-based watchdog group Democracy Watch.
"This incredibly bad situation exists because the federal Conservatives broke most of their accountability act promises that would have closed these loopholes and strengthened enforcement."
It's unlikely Carson will be found to have violated any laws, Conacher predicted.
"The Bruce Carson situation will, like so many other recent situations, prove yet again that secret, unethical lobbying of the federal government is effectively legal because of loopholes in the federal lobbying and ethics laws, and weak enforcement by the (parliamentary) ethics commissioner, commissioner of lobbying, the RCMP and Crown prosecutors."
NDP Leader Jack Layton also waded in Friday, saying the appearance of Conservative insiders using their influence when it comes involving desperately poor First Nations "makes my blood boil."
As for the Accountability Act, he said, "the loopholes that have been discovered make the whole thing look like Swiss cheese."
On Friday, the Toronto Star quoted Christine McPherson, who is believed to be Michelle McPherson's mother, as saying that Carson was being unfairly treated.
"We have read the articles and are deeply concerned for Mr. Carson. Unfortunately APTN is not giving the true and proper story and what they claim to have obtained is not from a good source or credible," Christine McPherson said.
Posting on adult websites suggest McPherson's moonlighting as an escort continued during the period she was signing the H20 Pros contract toward the end of August.
On Aug. 16, just two weeks before she signed the H2O Pros contract, "Leanna" posted a message on the Canadian Escort Recommendation Board.
"Hi Gentlemen, I will be excepting (sic) bookings this Tuesday and Wednesday for both in and out calls .... This being the last two days, I have decided to do something different in my personal life and will only be offering only out calls from now on... And only part time..."
But although she was moving toward a career change, it appears she didn't make a clean break.
"It's not often that I get to overnight in Ottawa, but as luck would have it, I had the opportunity a few weeks back to see Leanna," someone called latvian142 wrote on the Erotic Review website last September.
"A few email exchanges and we were able to set the date, this whole process with Leanna was effortless and enjoyable. We continued corresponding up to the date, discussing items such as dinner arrangements, wine preferences and so on."
APTN reported McPherson and Carson ended up buying a $400,000 home together in December on a two-acre spread complete with an in-ground pool.
According to the APTN report, Carson boasted of his close ties to the new Indian Affairs minister and his direct contact with Harper.
"I spoke with the PM last nite (sec) and with (Assembly of First Nations national Chief Shawn) Atleo -- the movement of John Duncan to INAC does not slow anything down," Carson wrote in an Aug. 6 email and received at 7:01 a.m.
"Both Shawn and I know John very well -- and I will be calling the new Minister this morning -- so it is still full steam ahead."
Carson told APTN that he spoke with Harper and cabinet ministers "on a regular basis."
Confronted with his email claiming he'd spoken to Harper about Duncan's pending ministerial appointment, Carson told APTN that "wasn't true." Carson is quoted as saying: "I spoke to somebody, but it wasn't the prime minister."
"I haven't talked to the prime minister about this at all," Carson twice told APTN.
His knowledge of Duncan's appointment at least three hours before Duncan was sworn in as Indian Affairs minister, however, suggests he was in contact with a small cadre of in-the-know politicos.
The Prime Minister's Office insists Harper has never met or spoken with Carson about H2O. The PMO said it has cut all ties to Carson.
Carson worked directly alongside Harper almost continuously from his time in opposition until leaving the Prime Minister's Office nearly two years ago.
He had a reputation as being one of the few advisers who could look Harper in the eye and flatly disagree with his assessment of a situation -- a quality insiders say was valuable and rare in the Harper PMO.
Around political Ottawa, he was known as "the Mechanic" for his ability to fix tricky situations.
Carson released a brief statement through the University of Calgary on Thursday night. He left the prime minister's employ in 2009 to become executive director of the Canada School of Energy and Environment, which is affiliated with the university.
"Out of respect for this process, the Office of the Prime Minister, and the many business and community leaders with whom I work, I will be taking a leave of absence effective immediately from all of my professional responsibilities until the investigation is concluded," he said.
Carson added that he had retained legal counsel and cannot comment further.
