Government Operations Committee on April 28th, 2010

[Nazim Gillani]

One of the things I did do was that I had a conversation with Patrick Glémaud, when he called me specifically about this contract that I had not seen. I'm referencing back to a timeframe before September 21.

One of the things he brought up was that once he got some feedback on Green Rite, which was one of the federal government applications that they had put in, he would go out and come up with some sort of document that he would want to put in front of us so that it would explain in more detail what compensation was going to be provided and to whom.

My understanding is, even now, that Mr. Glémaud believes the lobbying registration should have happened at some point in the future, right? That's what I saw him say to this committee. That's consistent with what he told me—even not knowing about lobbying, but I'm talking about it from a business standpoint—how do we quantify what we're going to do, and when are we going to quantify it in contract form?

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

So when did he imagine or when did you imagine that you would be--

[Nazim Gillani]

He told me once that he got feedback from the feds and it was positive, that there was some positive indication of interest, at that point he would want to sit down with us and put together a more formal agreement that outlined how the compensation was going to be passed through to them, in whatever way.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

You made comment a little earlier in your testimony here today that you would make sure the next time to secure a proper lobbyist.

[Nazim Gillani]

Yes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

Then do you believe that Mr. Jaffer and Mr. Glémaud were acting as lobbyists?

[Nazim Gillani]

You know, I don't. That's how I see it. Again, I did not dive into lobbying laws as much as I will. I purposely have not done a lot of research on lobbying so that I would come to this committee in the same form that I was in when this happened.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I say this respectfully: was this intended to be a hear-no-evil, see-no-evil kind of approach that you were going to take?

[Nazim Gillani]

No. I mean, you know, if I thought they were lobbying government, I would tell you so. My understanding is that they approached.... One project of ours got to the government and they responded with queries. Certainly you would think, if you were getting an application from someone and they weren't a registered lobbyist and then you were responding to them with requests for information, that in and of itself is a bit of a query to me as to how the government deals with this.... But my opinion is that I don't think they did anything wrong. I don't think they sold us anything. I don't think there was any undue influence or any sort of manner in which they were committing that they could get something further than anybody else.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

So let me come back to that. Again, from your perspective, you do not feel that they did anything untoward in relationships with the Prime Minister or the Prime Minister's Office—

[Nazim Gillani]

Absolutely.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

—or with ministers or parliamentary secretaries—

[Nazim Gillani]

As far as I was concerned, absolutely, yes.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

—as far as you were aware.

[Nazim Gillani]

Absolutely.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

I guess I'm still trying to come back and understand. I appreciate your comment. Maybe it was marketing and maybe it was naiveté about your enthusiastic e-mail sharing with folks that Mr. Jaffer had opened up the Prime Minister's Office to you. I'm trying to imagine what might have been said at that dinner that might have made you feel so enthusiastic or so feel-good about that.

[Nazim Gillani]

It's about the resources and the time that people are willing to commit to projects. In the business world you're always looking for individuals who are willing to commit their time and make a significant effort for your project. We all got that, and it was the same thing to the combination of the people there and to Dr. Chen as well. He was also very excited. The fact that we had a team that was coming together on a project, in and of itself, was exciting.

[Ed Holder, Conservative, London West, ON]

You have to understand--

[The Vice-Chair, Conservative, Chris Warkentin]

Mr. Holder, I'm going to cut you off here. Your time has expired.

We are going to turn it over to Mr. Guimond.

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Mr. Gillani, there is a dark shadow hanging over the head of private detective Derrick Snowdy. I have a question that you have probably also thought a lot about, and I am sure that you know the answer. What was his motive for revealing that information? Why did private detective Snowdy reveal all those things about you?

[Nazim Gillani]

The only link that I have to Derrick Snowdy that we have found is that Derrick Snowdy exists on a shareholder list belonging to a company called HD Retail Solutions. We were involved in taking this company public.

We met that company February 2009, to begin with, and in December 2009, this company declared bankruptcy. They were public; the private company declared bankruptcy and notified us, like everybody else, with a press release in the middle of January. This is a company that we invested $1.7 million in, and Mr. Snowdy is listed as an allocation shareholder from an e-mail from the president of HD Retail Solutions in June of 2009.

So the only link we have is that this is a company that we believe has done some very serious things wrong. We believe there are significant issues at play. I would appreciate it or ask respectfully that you provide us with the opportunity to complete our documentation, because we are in the process of moving forward the litigation, both civil and criminal, against this company and its principals. But--

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

You admit that he said a lot of things about you.

[Nazim Gillani]

Absolutely. Sure--

[Michel Guimond, Bloc, Montmorency—Charlevoix—Haute-Côte-Nord, QC]

There is this whole matter of drugs, prostitutes, etc.

[Nazim Gillani]

Absolutely. I agree with you 100%. It is very damaging, very serious, and criminal in nature if they were lies. I agree.