At the time, Mr. Bachand, you and I and all the other members of the committee were trying to obtain a mandate from the Canadian people. We were in the midst of an election. That mandate changed the behaviour of the government. All I can say is that that is what I understand about the circumstances around the signing.
Mr. Hillier was in Afghanistan. You have to remember that our troops were going to be deployed in three months. When we starting negotiating the agreement, it was very important to us to complete that deployment by the end of the year. The agreement in question had the approval of our department and the Department of Foreign Affairs. If Mr. Hillier had not signed it, Mr. Sproule, the Canadian ambassador, certainly would have signed it. From what I was told, General Wardak had a personal relationship with General Hillier dating back to the time when he commanded the International Security Assistance Force. General Wardak had asked General Hillier to sign on behalf of Canada, because he trusted him and had a personal relationship with him. That is all I know about that decision. General Hillier agreed, the ambassador did not sign, and we know the result.