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OTTAWA — International Development Minister Julian Fantino’s office has said it had nothing to do with the posting of two partisan letters to a government website — but new documents appear to contradict that statement.

On Jan. 12, a series of opinion pieces penned by Fantino appeared on the Canadian International Development Agency website. Two of them included political content, with the titles “Dear NDP: CIDA does not need your economic advice,” and “Liberals make promises, Conservatives get results.”

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A few days later, when media and the opposition began to question the propriety of putting partisan material on a federal government website, the letters were quickly taken down.

Fantino’s spokespeople blamed bureaucrats at the time, suggesting they posted the partisan letters by mistake after being asked to put some of his opinion pieces online.

“CIDA was asked to add appropriate web content and these were posted in error. CIDA has been asked to remove them immediately,” Meagan Murdoch said on Jan. 15.