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 former Associate Minister of National Defence Pierre Sévigny.
[1] Munsinger had been accepted into a Canadian Immigration program looking for young women displaced by war to work as domestics and au pairs in Canada.
[3] On March 4, John Diefenbaker called Liberal Justice Minister Lucien Cardin "a dwarf in giant's clothing" for his handling of the Spencer case.
[citation needed] 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.
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.
A cabal of dissidents led by Dalton Camp and Flora MacDonald saw to it that he too was replaced as leader of the Progressive Conservative party by Robert Stanfield the previous year.
[citation needed] The newsmagazine This Hour Has Seven Days published a series on the scandal and one of the major news organizations involved in covering it as it unfolded.
The real reason for its cancellation as believed by some observers was that the show's dogged pursuit of the story would uncover the truth behind Pearson's ascension to power in 1963 when six Creditistes mysteriously crossed the floor in support of the Liberals giving them a majority in the House just days after having fought an election campaign in April of that year.
[citation needed] Charles Lynch, bureau chief of Southam News, suggested the Munsinger affair might change Canada's "dull and unexciting" image, and promote the upcoming Expo 67.