Thank you for being here, Mr. MacKay. I don't think you are that big a fan of the committee. Like Mr. Mulroney and Mr. Schreiber, I think the best way of shedding light on this whole matter is through a commission of inquiry.
You say that essentially, this is just a business dispute between two individuals, and despite the fact that the payments were made in an unusual way, this was not illegal. It is true that it is not illegal to pay in cash and to keep this secret, but generally speaking, when people proceed in this way, they are trying to hide something illegal. I cannot believe that someone like you is not as disturbed as I am about a story of this type. A very rich businessman had some indirect dealings—some of which are considerable—with the Government of Canada. When the individual with whom he was dealing leaves political life, the businessman gives him cash in brown envelopes, as might happen with some dictator or other somewhere in the world. No records and no receipts. All of this was done in the context of a mandate that seems quite bizarre: it was about selling light armoured vehicles to totalitarian countries like China, and about selling German light armoured vehicles to France. Some records were kept, but they were destroyed. The income tax is paid five years later but this is done in such haste that income tax is even paid on the expenses that were incurred.
Do you not think that there are a lot of disturbing things in this story? Of course, there is no evidence or trial underway, but do you not think that the committee has raised many disturbing issues that deserve a more thorough investigation than has happened so far?