It seems that Canada's top civil servant, Kevin Lynch cannot conduct the NAFTA-gate leak probe himself due to some conflict of interest. A private Ottawa company, BMCI Investigations and Security Ltd has been tasked with the investigation instead. There is still no indication when the results of the investigation will be made public.

This unusual move, which was raised in the Commons by Liberal MP Navdeep Bains (Mississauga-Brampton South), was never announced by the government. And Myriam Massabki, spokesperson for Lynch's Privy Council Office, refused to discuss it.

Bains has been trying to wrest information from the government on the scope of the investigation, who is being interviewed and when a final report can be expected.

Considering that NAFTA-gate has high stakes for Canada-U.S. relations, the government should be moving faster to get to the bottom of the affair, he said in an interview.

"The government is dragging its feet. First they denied the whole thing, then they said they would look into it. Now it's being outsourced. The government is not giving us any specifics or timelines."

Can any Canadian readers shed some light on why the RCMP has not been tasked with this investigation?