Evidence of meeting #48 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 campaign.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
Fine.
Mr. Kumpf, does Mr. Ruby work at Retail Media?
As an Individual
I should respond to that.
He indeed is our legal counsel.
Bloc
As an Individual
But he's not an in-house legal counsel; he works for a law firm.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
At the time of the last election campaign, was Mr. Ruby also counsel to Retail Media?
Bloc
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
How big is Retail Media? How many clients do you have across Canada?
As an Individual
Well, first of all, Retail Media is a division of the larger company that I mentioned to you, Group M Canada, which is actually the largest purchaser of media time and space in Canada. So it's one company under a larger company.
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
It is a large American firm that does media purchasing, among other things. Group M is an American company.
As an Individual
It's an international company, yes. It's publicly traded.
To be very clear, if I may clarify, the ultimate owner is a company called WPP, which is one of the largest advertising and communications firms in the world. It's publicly traded.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
So if it is one of the largest communications firms in the world, legal counsel would certainly have been able to help you in the last election campaign, when you had doubts regarding the legality of the procedure.
As an Individual
No, we didn't. We sought the legal opinion of the experts in the matter, who were with the party, our client.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
You have several types of clients, for example brewing companies, breweries. Their advertising is tightly regulated by law, including rules about using a particular kind of advertising in a particular place. You are familiar with those laws and you have legal counsel who can give you advice about that.
The Elections Act is also complex. Did you not consult our own legal counsel when you had doubts? You had doubts and you put them in writing.
As an Individual
Well, I guess I don't accept the premise of the question. Our business is the business of media planning and placement, and it's a very specialized business. We act on behalf of clients and we do it on a daily basis and have been in business for many years.
As I believe you're indicating as well, elections are very specialized. We have a lot of clients. This is one particular client, but it's in a very different arena where we don't have specific expertise. We had no reason to doubt the expertise of the advice we were given; we had none whatsoever.
Bloc
Carole Lavallée Bloc Saint-Bruno—Saint-Hubert, QC
You are still the Conservative Party's supplier, and as such you are becoming experts in the Elections Act.
Do you not think that the Conservative Party's philosophy during the last election campaign was really whatever it takes to win, whether it's legal or not, and most importantly not ask questions and tell yourself it will work itself out when you get to power?
As an Individual
No, because first of all we asked for confirmation that all the transactions from our client were within the legal allowable limit, and indeed we received that confirmation.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
I want to be clear about this Group M. You're a subsidiary of Group M; is that what you are?
As an Individual
Group M serves as the parent company for RMI, so that's correct. RMI is part of Group M, which serves as the parent company.
Conservative
David Tilson Conservative Dufferin—Caledon, ON
Okay. So a number of companies are connected—indirectly, perhaps—to you?
