Several ministers changed portfolios last August. Had this rule not been changed, checks would have been done for several of them. In Mr. Bernier's case, the previous check dated back to 2006. But in 2006, he was not in a relationship with Ms. Couillard. When the second check was done in April, he was no longer seeing her, according to him. In any event, no check was done when he changed portfolios. There nevertheless was a gap since he dated Ms. Couillard during this two-year period. He changed portfolios within that period, but they were not covered by the background check because of that two-year period.
On June 17th, 2008. See this statement in context.