RCMP Chief Gave Security Clearance to Harper Aide With Five Fraud Convictions

Questions are swirling about why Bruce Carson was allowed to work as one of the prime minister’s top advisers.

This is getting bizarre. The CBC is reporting that RCMP Commissioner William Elliott granted Carson security clearance in 2006 when Elliott was working as security adviser in the Privy Council Office. Carson had been already been convicted of five counts of fraud. Now Elliott has been tasked with investigating Carson, because the prime minister called in the RCMP after APTN reported last month that Carson was allegedly engaged in illegal lobbying after leaving his post in 2008. To make matters more intertwined, Elliott was handpicked by Harper to become the RCMP’s first civilian commissioner in 2007. As one of Harper’s top advisers, Carson would have had access to highly sensitive information.