Gerda Munsinger
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Gerda Munsinger (c.1926-1998) was an East German prostitute and Soviet spy who was the centre of the political scandal in Canada.
Born in East Germany, after a short-lived marriage to American soldier Michael Munsinger, she emigrated to Canada in 1955. Munsinger lived in Montreal where she worked as a maid, a waitress and as a hostess at the "Chez Paree" nightclub. While in Canada, she became involved in relationships with a number of high government officials, most notably cabinet minister, George Hees and Pierre Sévigny the Associate Minister of National Defence.
She was deported to East Germany in 1961 as the matter was dealt with privately. Sévigny resigned quietly in 1963.
The affair became public in 1966 as Minister of Justice Lucien Cardin mentioned the affair during a session of parliament. The media heard about it and broke the story.
The government initially said she had passed away from leukemia several years earlier, but a Canadian reporter with the Toronto Star found her living in Munich, Germany and she confirmed the story.
While during the scandal she was the centre of a media frenzy, she eventually married for a third time, and under the name Gerda Merkt she spent the rest of her life in relative obscurity, passing away in 1998 in Munich.
The Munsinger affair inspired Canadian writer/director Brenda Longfellow to produce a 1992 feature film called "Gerda."