Evidence of meeting #46 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 39th Parliament, 2nd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was witnesses.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
This morning this committee decided that all witnesses would be sworn in and that they cannot use the defence that there's an ongoing court case and therefore they will not reply. So my question is whether our witness was told that he should have--or was he ever advised that he should have--legal counsel here to counsel him on the legalities of the situation he finds himself right now?
We had a whole slate of witnesses here who were not told anything about the legal consequences of the position in which they find themselves. They've been sworn in by the committee, and there are legal repercussions to what they say in a court of law.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Thank you for the speech. That's not a point of order. We're going to move on.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
It is. It has to do with procedure. You're making it up as we go along.
Conservative
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Okay, the chair has been challenged. It's not debatable. We have to go to a vote.
Shall the decision of the chair be sustained?
(Ruling of the chair sustained [See Minutes of Proceedings]).
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Okay. We're now going to start with our questioning.
Mr. Martelli, you had a response.
As an Individual
To answer this gentleman's question, the reason I didn't come with an attorney is that you are going to get the same story as I delivered last year in the press and the same story will be told today. Now, if you gentlemen can't handle the truth, that's really not in my ballpark, that's in your ballpark, sir.
By the way, the gentlemen I was representing in 2006--
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Paul Szabo
Order. Order, Mr. Martelli. Thank you.
We're going to move on to questions
. Mr. Proulx, you have seven minutes.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Good afternoon Mr. Martelli. Thank you for getting involved in this exercise in order to tell us about your position.
I understand that you were a candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada in the 2006 election. Did the Conservative Party contact your campaign to take part in a financing scheme?
As an Individual
Halfway through the campaign, Mr. Benoît Larocque called me to tell me that the party wanted to deposit $14,000 in our campaign account. I asked him what was involved. He told me that there was nothing to worry about because he had asked nine other committees the same thing and they had all accepted. I then asked him whether there were going to be any repercussions, and he told me that everything was fine. I then told my financial agent, Brian Alexandrovitch, that Benoît Larocque was going to send him documentation to deposit $14,000 into the account, but that it would only be for 24 hours, an in-and-out. To repeat my story: I had asked Benoît Larocque whether there were going to be any repercussions and he told me that it was a common practice. As I was new to the campaign, I did not know.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Martelli, did anyone from Retail Media Inc. contact you to talk about purchasing advertising or anything else?
As an Individual
No one. The only thing that Mr. Benoît Larocque told me at the time was that no explanation was needed, that it was trivial.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Larocque told you that it was trivial, that there were no problems or any dangers and that everything would be kosher.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
He never told you that it could be serious and lead to charges or allegations of fraud. He told you that everything was above board.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Was the money transferred to your bank account electronically?
Liberal
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Did your official agent have control over this money at any point?