A Montreal newspaper says the RCMP recently visited with Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier to ask him about a photo that shows him shaking hands with a Montreal businessman who currently facing criminal charges.
Michael Chamas, 44, was arrested in March with 27 other people, after an operation targeting organized crime on three Mohawk reserves in Quebec and eastern Ontario.
Chamas faces 10 counts of possession of illegal weapons. His case is still before the courts.
Montreal's La Presse reports that Bernier and Chamas were both at a Jan. 15 fundraiser for Bernier, where the photo was taken.
Neil Hrab, a spokesman for Bernier, told The Canadian Press that Bernier didn't know Chamas and had only spoken with him the one time.
La Presse said Chamas is listed as president of Global Village International Solutions, a Delaware-based company that bills itself as a construction and project management firm.
A photo on the website also shows Chamas with former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, Hrab said.
Below that photo is one of Chamas with John Crosbie, a federal Progressive Conservative cabinet minister during the Brian Mulroney era, now lieutenant-governor of Newfoundland and Labrador.
Those two photos are on a page described as "December 7 2007: Meeting with Conservative Party candidate for Papineau in Montreal."
Chamas hasn't commented on the photos.
This latest incident follows on the heels of a controversy involving Bernier and his ex-girlfriend Julie Couillard.
She had previously been romantically linked to Gilles Giguere, an associate of Hells Angels boss Maurice (Mom) Boucher. Couillard had also been married once to Stephane Sirois, a member of the Rockers biker gang.
When the story broke last week, the Liberals and Bloc Quebecois asked whether Couillard had ever undergone a security check or had access to classified information.
She had accompanied Bernier on a few foreign trips.
Last month, Bernier caused an uproar when he suggested to reporters in Afghanistan that Asadullah Khalid, the governor there, should be replaced.
With files from The Canadian Press
