Olympic medallist Myriam Bédard, who blew the whistle on Via Rail's connection with the federal sponsorship scandal, received a generous gift from the head of a Quebec advertising firm, says a report.

The Journal de Montreal reports that Bedard received a $70,000 Mercedes sports car at a banquet in March 1999. According to the report, the car was partly paid for by Jean Brault, the president of Groupaction, one of the Montreal advertising companies at the heart of the sponsorship scandal.

A Quebec car dealership paid another 50 per cent of the tab, with Quebecor's Montreal-based Videotron picking up the rest.

The report says that Bedard had a long, professional relationship with Groupaction that dated back to her days as an Olympic biathlete. Bedard worked with Groupaction on a number of product endorsement campaigns to promote the 1998 Nagano Winter Games.

A former agent for Bedard, Jean-Marc Saint-Pierre, told the Journal that Groupaction's Brault had known Bedard for many years and the car was a gift between friends, to commemorate her retirement from biathlon competition. 

Maurice Parent, the head of the car dealership involved, Chatel Automobile de Québec, says he considered Bedard like a daughter and was willing to help provide the car as a gift.

Bedard refused comment to the Journal de Montreal.

CTV's Rosemary Thompson says the report leaves many questions about Bedard's relationship with Groupaction unanswered.

"What is hard to understand is that several years after Bedard went to work for Via Rail, Via wanted her to work for Groupaction and she refused. What's not clear is why relations soured so much."

Bedard came forward last week to say she lost her marketing job at Via Rail in 2002 after she questioned inflated invoices being submitted by Groupaction.

Jean Pelletier, the chairman of Via Rail, dismissed Bedard's allegations, lashing out that Bedard was a "pitiful" single mother.

Prime Minister Paul Martin fired Pelletier Monday, saying the insulting remarks would discourage others with knowledge about the sponsorship scandal from coming forward.

When asked about whether he knew about Bedard's past with Groupaction when he fired the Via chairman, Martin said he hadn't seen the story.

But he reiterated that Pelletier was fired solely for the comments he made and the effect those comments would have had on other potential whistleblowers.