Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good evening, Ms. Wilford. Thank you so much for agreeing to attend and for sharing your knowledge with respect to your company's involvement in this particular matter.
I know that you touched upon it briefly in your summary, but I want to put to rest a lingering thought that really has been percolating, and is still percolating almost to this day, around this particular protest. It basically had its origins pretty much the day the convoy arrived. It was this whole concept that this was a foreign-influenced movement. It was that foreign monies, predominantly, were flowing into this country to subvert our democracy. I know that you touched upon a statistic that clearly puts that to rest, but I want to put things in more perspective for you before I ask you the question.
This is a campaign that really started, right from the get-go, right from the Prime Minister, numerous cabinet ministers and a number of governing members of Parliament. When you attended the finance committee, one Liberal MP even suggested that there was a Russia connection. In fact, the comment was for you or Mr. Benitez—I don't know whom the question was put to. It was, “We know that Russia has been engaged in misinformation warfare for years...$1 trillion in Russian dark money that is circulating and dedicated to undermining our democracy.”
That was followed up by a question put to you by a Conservative member which basically said there was a little bit of irresponsibility in speculating about a Russian government connection. He asked you, “Did you uncover any connection between the illegal protests...and the Russian government?”
Mr. Benitez, the president of your company, responded, “12% of the donations came from outside of Canada. There was virtually only perhaps a handful, at most, of donations from Russia.”
Do you accept that as well, Madam?