Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you, Madam Shepherd, for coming here and, as always, giving us a very clear and concise interpretation of your work. I'd like to put this review and our review of the Lobbying Act into context. We felt that rules needed to be tightened because of a widespread disgust about big money unduly influencing politicians. Rules were brought in and standards were set. Now sometimes we might chafe against some of those rules because they may seem a little arbitrary, but the reason those rules were put in place was to stop the backroom influence that was plaguing Ottawa.
In looking at your reports, I'm really impressed with their clarity. In fact, in the reports on Michael McSweeney and Will Stewart, you found that they were in breach of rule 8 by placing the minister in an apparent conflict of interest. It was because they were helping to organize and sell the tickets to a fundraiser. They were playing an active role. In your act, the issue is real and apparent and these seemed perhaps to have an equal weight, or at least there's a clear weight there.
In the review we're doing, we're not getting a clear sense from the commissioner whether she sees fundraising as a personal benefit or not. You've said that it clearly is. Do you think that if we had clarity in the language in both acts, that it should be real and apparent, it would help to alleviate any possible conflict of interpretation between your office and Ms. Dawson's?