(2 of 2)
"If the Justice Minister wants any information, why doesn't he call me?" Gerda asked Reporter Reguly. "If you can find me, surely he can."
Denial & Dilemma. That was a question that Cardin found hard to answer, and it was followed by a formal statement from Gerda, printed the next day in the Toronto Star: "I want to return to Canada as soon as possible to clear my name of the slanderous accusations that I was ever a spy." The spy charge was all that Gerda seemed concerned about. Back in Montreal, her friend Sevigny, a suave and successful Montreal businessman, had a lot more on his mind. He appeared at a press conference and, with his wife standing beside him, angrily denied more than a harmless "social relationship" with Gerda. Cardin, he said, was a "cheap, despicable little man who has brought this odious, erroneous nonsense in front of the public for petty political reasons."
It was a serious dilemma for Pearson. With shouts of "Resign!" ringing through the House of Commons, he called for a judicial inquiry that he hoped would prove security was indeed involved in the case. If that could not be established, the government might well fall. At week's end, Cardin, the man who had started it all, seemed gloomy about his own prospect. "I think I am at the end of an era which has not been very edifying," he said. "I'll be happy, very happy, to go home."