Federal Minister of State Helena Guergis snapped at reporters who asked questions about the impaired-driving and drug-related charges faced by her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer. (CBC)

Federal Minister of State Helena Guergis rebuffed questions Thursday about the impaired-driving and drug-related charges faced by her husband, former MP Rahim Jaffer.

“I put out a statement that I am taking this very seriously,” she said when questioned about the incident by reporters. "I do love my husband very much, and I don’t really have enough information to give you any further comment. If you do talk about it, please call my husband."

Jaffer, 37, was charged with impaired driving and possession of cocaine Wednesday by Ontario Provincial Police.

But Guergis, who was at Parliament Hill in support of the annual Run for the Cure fundraiser to fight breast cancer, got angry when questioned whether she was in the car with her husband at the time.

“No, I was not,” she snapped back. “We have a very important event today. Do not disrespect it.”

Police said they stopped a Ford Escape that had been travelling at high speed through the village of Palgrave, northwest of Toronto. The officer who made the stop noticed the odour of alcohol on the driver's breath, police said in a news release.

A resident of Angus, Ont., about 100 kilometres north of Toronto, Jaffer is due to appear in court in Orangeville on Oct. 19. His driver's licence has been suspended for 90 days.

Elected in the Alberta riding of Edmonton-Strathcona in 1997 under the banner of the Reform Party, Jaffer held the riding as a member of the Canadian Alliance and then the Conservatives until his surprising defeat by an NDP candidate in the 2008 election.

Guergis, the Conservative government's minister of state for the status of women, was first elected to Parliament in 2004 in her Ontario riding of Simcoe–Grey.