Evidence of meeting #48 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was campaign.
A recording is available from Parliament.
12:35 p.m.
As an Individual
There were advertising companies that were involved: Republik, I believe, in Quebec, which I believe you've called as a witness; and a company in the balance of Canada, called Yield.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay, I have a very quick question, because I'm going to run out of time here.
12:35 p.m.
As an Individual
I could actually answer that. You're right that there was probably a tag. We had utilized in Gatineau-Hull the TVA station and the TQS station, number one and number three. They were trafficked to be for only the Hull ridings. Additionally, the fourth-ranked station in that market is RDS, and we utilized RDS as part of the purchase. This is a regional network, as you're well aware.
That said, what we were looking at was a purchase. It was not an ROS purchase. By that I mean there weren't spots all over the place, at two o'clock in the morning or anything. It was limited to Habs games and I think, as well, some NHL with Sidney Crosby, his debut year. And there were a few other things. It was high-profile programs.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay, excuse me, I'm running out of time.
Your list of candidates and list of ridings were prepared, you told us, in mid-December. Mid-December meant that some of the candidates for the Conservative Party had not yet been chosen. How could you have identified candidates prior to their having been selected or appointed? That would be against elections laws.
12:35 p.m.
As an Individual
I believe we said that we selected ridings, not candidates.
12:35 p.m.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Okay. This is my final question.
There was a letter addressed by you on January 15 to Mrs. Manon Hamel at Elections Canada. It says in there that you are representing the media buys made by the Conservative Party of Canada and the official agents for participating Conservative candidates in the federal election. And the Conservative Party sent a letter saying you had contractual obligations between it and the Conservative Party and the participating candidates for the media buys.
Who's telling the truth? Did you have a business relationship with candidates and official agents, or as you said when you first started, you didn't; and who asked you to draft this letter?
12:40 p.m.
As an Individual
I did not have any relationship with the candidates.
As we've said, we looked at it as two clients, one contact point. As David said in the opening remarks, we couldn't undertake this with all the different candidates that were involved. It had to be with the party itself.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Thank you.
We have gone a little bit over time. I want to very quickly bring it to a close.
Thank you to the witnesses. As we have with our other witnesses, you have an opportunity to make a closing remark. I don't know if you have one spokesman or one person who would like to say something to the committee very briefly. We're not looking for a speech, but just to be absolutely sure that if you want to correct or amplify something, or simply generally, you have that opportunity now.
Mr. Campbell.
12:40 p.m.
As an Individual
All I want to do is thank the committee for their time and their questions. We've answered to the best of our ability.
12:40 p.m.
Liberal
2 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Order.
We're resuming meeting 48 of the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, pursuant to a motion adopted by the committee, which reads:
That the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics investigate the actions of the Conservative Party of Canada during the 2006 election, in relation to which Elections Canada has refused to reimburse Conservative candidates for certain election campaign expenses in order to determine if these actions meet the ethical standards expected of public office holders.
This afternoon we have two sections. During the first section, we have some candidates and official agents of candidates.
Ms. Cecil Cranston, Mr. Neil Jamieson, and Mr. Harvey Venier contacted us, and for a variety of reasons they weren't able to accommodate us, but they will consider a future date. So they are not here today.
We do have with us Ms. Cynthia Downey. It's Burin—St. George's, but there's a word in front.
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Welcome.
With her is her official agent, Mr. Darren Roberts. And we have Mr. Steve Halicki, candidate in the 2006 election for York South—Weston.
Welcome to all of you.
Could we please swear in the witnesses?
While the clerk is doing that, colleagues, I'd like to report to you, as I reviewed with Mr. Goodyear earlier and privately, that I found the 1,000 pages of documents I referred to from Elections Canada on my conference table in my office on Sunday night when I arrived. The letter from Mr. Mayrand was on top of the box.
The letter you received yesterday--there was a copy of it in both official languages--indicated it was carbon copied to the clerk. Today it was confirmed to me by Elections Canada that they inadvertently did not provide the box with the 1,000 pages to the clerk. They have rectified that. In the meantime, having consulted with Mr. Goodyear, I have asked the clerks to immediately make copies of all those documents for each member of the committee. Those will be available tomorrow morning.
These documents substantively relate to the cross-examination or testimony of Ann O'Grady, the chief financial officer of the Conservative Party of Canada, or Madam Vézina, who is a principal at Elections Canada. There are also some other exhibits. Those were offered to Madam Jennings when she was questioning the Chief Electoral Officer. Those documents have nothing to do with any other requests the members subsequently made to us. So you will have those by tomorrow.
All other undertakings or requests by members for documents are still in process. There is nothing we have that we could give to the committee. Everything is in process.
Also, yesterday Mr. Goodyear requested a substantial amount of information. I raised some questions of privacy. We have decided to eliminate the home addresses and private phone numbers and e-mail addresses of all of the persons on there. That document is being translated. So tomorrow you will have the document about the telephone calls made with regard to the 79 proposed witnesses as well.
I just want to confirm to everybody that we have nothing to give you that's ready to be distributed to all members at this time.
Mr. Goodyear, please.
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
Mr. Chair, thank you very much for that. That's excellent news.
Did I hear you correctly that you don't have some of the stuff, that it's in process? You don't have the affidavits of service for the summonses either? You don't have that?
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
2:05 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
How could you then have gone out to the media yesterday and said that all these people were summonsed and therefore were in violation of some parliamentary rule—and Mr. Martin backed you up on all these slanderous allegations—when in fact, sir, you just admitted you have no idea which summonses have been served or whether they've been served at all?
2:05 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
The question to me with regard to the summons was that....The report of the clerks on the response from prospective witnesses indicated to me which ones had not responded or had responded that they would not appear. As a consequence, I came to Ottawa on August 1 and signed 33 summonses for service, and they were provided to Kilrea and Associates on that date for personal service. The firm is very reputable; the committees directorate has used its service in the past.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
2:10 p.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
I understand that. But I have not received.... You can appreciate that even if I issue a summons, if the bailiff tries several times to serve it and the person is not there or does not appear able to be served, the only way I would know he has not been served is by getting that report from the bailiff. And I don't have the final report.
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
Mr. Chair, with due respect, that is exactly my point. Yesterday you banged the gavel, literally ran out of the room, and held a press conference. You made allegations. You implied that these people had received their summonses. I'm not inferring any problems with the people you used; I'm sure they did your job.
My point is to point out to you again, sir, that you are making statements in front of the media. You banged the gavel, adjourned the meeting, ran out of the room, and held a press conference. Mr. Martin backed you up, and you made all kinds of egregious allegations without any proof.
Now, we can't take that back. But I'm asking you to admit that error. It's not your clerk's fault, sir, that you ran out and made unprovable allegations. Right now, sir, you have been caught in a dirty deed, and I'm asking you not only to admit it, apologize for it, but also to somehow impart some confidence to this committee that you will not mislead this committee or the media again.
You're doing the same thing, Mr. Martin. Let me explain something else, Mr. Martin. Yesterday—
2:10 p.m.
Some hon. members
Oh, oh!
2:10 p.m.
Conservative
Gary Goodyear Conservative Cambridge, ON
I would like to take this up through the chair, then.
Mr. Martin, on the first day here you asked me to go eff myself. Three times that member called me an...[Inaudible--Editor]...seven human orifices. I don't appreciate it. You called me out yesterday, and frankly, Mr. Martin, you have shown nothing but poor conduct in this committee. You do it when your microphone is off, and so I'm pointing it out on the record.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. But please apologize and give us a commitment that you're not going to mislead and make statements you can't back up.