In a front page story Tim Harper of the Toronto Star reports that 27 year old lobbyist Frank Sensenbrenner is at the "epicentre of a scandal over a leaked Canadian memo which wounded Democratic presidential front-runner Barack Obama."
Sensenbrenner, was not registered as a lobbyist at the time he received a no-bid contract from the Canadian government with the backing of Prime Minister Harper's office and Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day. The Canadian embassy employed Sensenbrenner to exert influence in Congress where his father, Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI) was once the head of the House Judiciary Committee. He introduced the Patriot Act.
Frank Sensenbrenner denies having anything to do with the scandal.
More:
Although the circumstances surrounding the Canadian NAFTA memo leak have been much reported and discussed here (See: 196 Results for "Canada & NAFTA" search) the issue has not yet been settled.
Canada has conducted a review and the report isn't satisfactory to the opposition. The Privy Council report appeared to absolve the Prime Minister's Office of all responsibility even though the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff, Ian Brodie made the initial comment about NAFTA and the Democratic race during a pre-budget media session.
The diplomatic memo, based on a meeting with an Obama adviser, indicated the Illinois senator, then in a fierce battle in Ohio with challenger Hillary Clinton, was merely positioning himself politically in publicly opposing NAFTA.
That revelation allowed Clinton to successfully paint Obama as duplicitous and allowed her to cruise to victory in that state's Democratic primary.
A Harper-ordered probe of the leak, by Clerk of the Privy Council Office Kevin Lynch, released last week did not pin down the source of the memo.
*emphasis added
Yesterday Toronto Star columnist Jim Travers identified Jim Sensenbrenner as the person who leaked the Canadian memo to the Associated Press. See: Signs point to PMO in NAFTA leak
OTTAWA–Fingers are pointing at Conservatives close to Stephen Harper for leaking a diplomatic memo that badly embarrassed Barack Obama and put Canada's vital cross-border interests at risk. Multiple sources say the Canadian note questioning the Democrat frontrunner's public promise to reopen NAFTA was leaked from the Prime Minister's Office to a Republican contact before it made American headline news.
Their claims come days after an internal probe threw up its hands at finding the source. Contradicting Friday's inconclusive report, they claim the controversial memo was slipped to the son of Wisconsin Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner. Frank Sensenbrenner is well connected to Harper's inner circle and, at Ottawa's insistence, was briefly on contract with Canada's Washington embassy to work on congressional relations.
* emphasis added
It seems this story needs more coverage on the American side.