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.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
It was therefore understand that your campaign, your official agent and you had no influence over how this money was going to be spent.
As an Individual
As Mr. Larocque said at the time, it was simply an in-and-out, without any explanation.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
So neither you, your campaign nor your official agent would have been able to decide, while the money was still in your account, to use it for something else. It was a question of trust and of keeping your word. They placed the money in your account and you were not to touch it, and they withdrew it afterwards.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Did someone in the Conservative Party ask you to behave in any particular way with respect to the Elections Canada investigation? Were you ever told to speak out, not to speak or not to speak too much?
As an Individual
Last year around this time, Mr. Michel Rivard, the Conservative Party accountant in Quebec City, called me one afternoon and asked me not to speak any more to Elections Canada. I answered that unfortunately, Elections Canada and I were on a first-name basis. I added that after everything the Conservative Party had done, I had nothing to apologize for and that I would tell Elections Canada nothing but the truth. That is the only time Mr. Rivard called me. He called back a few times, but I never answered. He definitely told me not to worry and that a lawyer would represent me. I answered that if that was going to get me involved in the same scandal about the elections, then I wasn't interested and would go it alone.
Liberal
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Mr. Martelli, when did you hear for the first time that Elections Canada wanted to discuss the legitimacy of this expense in your returns?
As an Individual
I began to receive letters from Elections Canada around the end of May or the beginning of June in 2007.
Liberal
As an Individual
They said that I had placed $14,000 in my... during the last elections, and they wanted to know what this money had been used for. I had received at least 10% of the votes and they returned $8,000 to me. I was asked where this $8,000 was. I answered that I had no idea, that I had never seen the $8,000 reimbursement in our account.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
Unless I am wrong, the $8,000 had been reimbursed by Elections Canada on the basis of the return that you had filed.
Liberal
Marcel Proulx Liberal Hull—Aylmer, QC
After sending the $8,000 to you or to the party, because you never saw it, Elections Canada went on the attack to find out what was involved in these $14,000 of expenses.
As an Individual
Not at all. During the election, I had only $1,000 in expenses, which the party had provided us with. When Mr. Michel Rivard came to do our tax returns, it did not take long. He asked me to sign here and there, and then left.
Liberal