The Munsinger affair was Canada's first national political sex scandal in 1966. The affair involved Gerda Munsinger, a German citizen who had been convicted in Germany as a common prostitute, a petty thief and a smuggler, who emigrated to Canada in 1956 in spite of a warning card dated 1952, and who in 1960 was the mistress of the then Associate Minister of National Defence Pierre Sévigny. Munsinger was "a self-admitted espionage agent" in the employ of the "Russian Intelligence Service". Rumours circulated that she died of leukemia upon her return.
Possible security breach
After the Gouzenko affair, matters of Canadian national security were not usually made the subject of public debate. In 1966, however, the Liberal government came under attack for a security breach involving two Soviet diplomats and George Victor Spencer, a Vancouver mail clerk, who confessed to collecting information for the Soviet Embassy. On March 4, John Diefenbaker called Liberal Justice Minister Lucien Cardin "a dwarf in giant's clothing" for his handling of the Spencer case. Two days later, Cardin rebutted the Tories by bringing up Munsinger's name in the House of Commons responding to Diefenbaker's attacks. Cardin was told that Munsinger was dead. His aim was to criticize Diefenbaker's handling of the case five years earlier.
The day after Justice Minister Cardin pronounced to the Canadian press that she was indeed dead, Munsinger was tracked down and interviewed in Munich by Toronto Daily Star reporter Robert Reguly. She freely admitted her numerous affairs with government officials to the Canadian media. The story dominated the media for weeks and was followed with rapt attention across the country. It became a massive distraction and all but shut down all other parliamentary activity for some weeks.
A Royal Commission was immediately convened. In his report, Supreme Court Justice Wishart Spence found no criminal wrongdoing or security breach, but he did criticize Diefenbaker's handling of the case.