Government Operations committee  I think, Madame Folco, that the question that I was going to be very much involved would be perhaps the crux of the perception. We have been working on the West Block project since the contract was first awarded in 1995. So whether or not in 2009 I then decided to give $500 from my personal account, it didn't strike me that there was a specific correlation between a relatively modest donation to a political party and the expectation, as you might be suggesting, of being about to work on a project.

Government Operations committee  I must say to you that we knew nobody there, so it wasn't that we could recognize faces or anything. It's not a large restaurant, this restaurant it was held in on Saint-Zotique Street in Montreal. It seemed like a small restaurant that was quite dark. We came in and sat together at a table at the back and just waited to hear the speeches.

Government Operations committee  Yes. I've never been to one before.

Government Operations committee  Yes, although an invitation that comes with a request for money is not really an invitation, but yes, I think it was Mr. Sauvé who must have—

Government Operations committee  No.

Government Operations committee  No, I do not.

Government Operations committee  I was present at the cocktail on January 19, yes.

Government Operations committee  Shall I answer that first?

Government Operations committee  I think that there were a number of reasons, but whereas we're focused right now on the West Block, I have to say that if you understand a wider context of what was happening outside of the very specific nature of the project, there were a great deal of—through the fall, and then specifically in January of 2009—marches and newspaper articles about not supporting Israel in the papers.