Evidence of meeting #44 for Foreign Affairs and International Development in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was organization.
A recording is available from Parliament.
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
There's no investigation on the other matters. There's no investigation.
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
He was raising with me the fact—and this was a concern to me also—that a certain number of persons who were participating at the Cairo conference did have relations with terrorists.
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
He said to me.... And I don't know how he did that. He said he was looking on the Internet. Just a click.
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
And what I did, for me, I think it was my duty to say okay, I don't have to judge that; that's a serious matter and I'll bring that to the RCMP.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
I just want to be clear that Mr. Gauthier hadn't pursued this with the RCMP, these concerns?
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
No. Look, just one moment. Gauthier made an end to the SIRCO inquiry, and for him SIRCO was about the dismissal of the three directors. It was not, for him, about other things.
4:15 p.m.
NDP
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
—we have a firm that was paid almost $200,000 that was off investigating what they thought was important, without direction. We had a board here that said this was a concern of theirs. So someone is zooming someone here, and I think we're getting zoomed.
The fact is we are talking about $1 million being spent for problems that didn't exist, and you're trying to move on. I say to you, Mr. Latulippe, the problem you have.... You had a board that still wanted to pursue, until you intervened, this SIRCO contract. Is that correct?
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
It's essential in order to permit me to move ahead on three major factors. Look at the discretionary funds: $1.5 million given to small organizations—
4:15 p.m.
NDP
Paul Dewar NDP Ottawa Centre, ON
No, I get that. You could have read that on your own, though, and determined that.
I'm saying on the SIRCO report, what you have is that what they're looking at, they came up with nothing of real value. You've just told us that. You said it in your letter. I see it in the e-mails. So on this concern about the contract—nada. This concern about having relations with “terrorists”—nothing there.
So what we have is SIRCO really not giving you much value for money. If I'm an administrator, I ask who signed us on to this; I want it ended. I'm glad you ended it, but my understanding was that the board wanted to continue until you intervened. Is that correct? Did the board want to continue with SIRCO?
4:15 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Dean Allison
Go ahead, answer the question. That's all the time we have. We're going to move on, but go ahead and answer the question.
4:15 p.m.
President, Rights and Democracy
There was a debate on the board on the question about more reports, more work from SIRCO. I was against that.
But the SIRCO report is useful, Mr. Dewar, because this is in fact in relation to the activities of the three directors who were dismissed. It was essential for that.