Influence-peddling trial opens for former Harper aide

OTTAWA — A former top aide to Prime Minister Stephen Harper was trying to help a girlfriend leave her escort past behind when he got involved in trying to persuade the government to buy water systems from a company that employed her, a court heard Monday.

Bruce Carson has pleaded not guilty to a charge of influence peddling in a trial that Harper’s opponents are using to question the prime minister’s judgment in making appointments.

The Ottawa court heard that Carson testified he was merely trying to help when he offered to assist an Ottawa-based company, H2O Water Professionals, in getting meetings in 2010 and 2011 with government officials.

But Crown prosecutor Jason Nicol told the Ontario Superior Court of Justice that Carson wasn’t some altruistic figure trying to help H2O Pros clinch a deal to sell water-purification equipment to First Nations communities desperate to fix tainted water problems.

Instead, Nicol said Carson wanted to help his then-fiancée, Michele McPherson, leave her former life as an escort.

“It’s all about a pretty girl,” Nicol said as he read from the thick binders of evidence presented at Carson’s preliminary hearing, which were formally submitted Monday as evidence at his trial.

“She’s the only reason we’re all in this,” Carson said of McPherson in an email he sent to the owner of H2O Pros.