First I want to say a couple of things, and I think this is important. We all know people who were interned. One I knew was a professor at the University of Toronto until he retired. Many of you would know Johnny Lombardi, the radio broadcaster. Johnny went to war. This is the weird stuff, right? Johnny was born here and he went to war for Canada, but when he went he was asked where he came from. He said Canada, that he was born here. They insisted that he tell them his origins, and he said his parents were of Italian origin. They said that in that case he was Italian. His comment to me was that he went to war as an Italian born in Canada. He couldn't be a Canadian—that was not acceptable. That shows the kind of weird stuff that was going on.
Mr. Del Mastro talked about former prime ministers. Yes, they were wrong, but two wrongs don't make a right. I think we need to say that clearly here. I never have misgivings about that.
The other thing was about the first at the table. It was Paul Martin with $12.5 million. The fact is that the agreement was made, the election took place, and that didn't happen. But this government had the choice of continuing to negotiate with the community and chose to break it off.
We all know that you can go into any community and identify two or three people who are not connected and encourage them to divide and conquer. You can always do that. That's easy to do. We all know that around this table. Let's not mince words. The reality is the government chose to ignore the community and to go to a group of people who did not have the history or the ability to manage. Of course, the money is not $12.5 million.
Mr. Stante, were you part of the negotiations on the $12.5 million? Was there a clear understanding that this was a commitment on the government side?