Evidence of meeting #101 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was work.
A video is available from Parliament.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
You don't agree.
Well, it's interesting, because Christopher Wylie is on the record, and he gave testimony. Like I said, testimony is supposed to be true. He said that he asked you if you were siloing your work, because you had all these interconnected campaigns, interconnected financing, and interconnected Google Drives, and you said, Mr. Silvester—quote—“Absolutely not. It was just one common ad program.”
That would be illegal, would it not?
9:10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
Sorry, I don't know.... When did I say that?
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
That's what he said you said. He said:
They conceded to me—and this is a verbatim quote, and I stand by it, I remember Jeff Sylvester telling me...
that what you were doing
...was, quote, “totally illegal”.
9:10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
I did have a conversation with Mr. Wylie in April of 2017, well after Brexit. Mr. Wylie and I have known each other since 2005. As part of that conversation, we certainly did speak about what the media was talking about: the BeLeave relationship with Vote Leave.
I've never believed that what was going on was illegal or that anything we did was anything but above board.
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Okay, but you could see how strange it looks that there were campaign financing limits and all the groups that were given money, who seemed to be fairly marginal names, funnelled the money to your company to be used in the ads. You shared the same Google Drive between these, and they are under investigation for evading the electoral limits, and it keeps coming back to AggregateIQ.
Mr. Wylie also said that when he talked to you and had the conversation where he said that you said what was happening was “totally illegal”, the two of you found this whole thing amusing, which I find is an interesting word. He said, “You have to remember that this is a company that has gone around the world and undermined democratic institutions in all kinds of countries.” He said that they “could care less as to whether or not their work is compliant”, because “[t]hey like to win”.
I want to go back to SCL, then, because I'm looking at the SCL group's contract, of which you were a part, and yet you say you're not part of that. How could you be listed as a partner in doing work in Trinidad and Tobago through SCL if you're not connected with them?
9:10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
We have done work for SCL, and we've not hidden that. We did a few projects for them starting in 2013 and ending in 2016. For a few of those projects, we signed some contracts with SCL to do that work, but we're not a part of them. We're a—
9:10 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
Would you say that that work was totally legal? Because I see something about getting Internet service provider log files. Mr. Wylie says that you go around the world doing illegal work and that's what you did in Brexit. How would you assure us that the Trinidad work was legal?
9:10 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
The work we did in Trinidad was two things. One was to make a political customer relationship management tool for SCL's client there, and the other was to provide SCL with information on popular websites in Trinidad and Tobago.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
But that's not what it says here. It says that what you were doing was gathering data for them that would include Internet service provider log files. That's a very specific kind of work, and to me it would certainly be questionable as to whether it's legal. You were doing that contracted by SCL.
9:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
Yes, the information that we provided to SCL was simple, commercially available information on which websites in Trinidad and Tobago were popular among folks there.
9:15 a.m.
NDP
Charlie Angus NDP Timmins—James Bay, ON
So, Mr. Nix was not involved with you on the Brexit campaign. Again, I find it so odd, and nothing against your company, but you're set up above this optometrist's shop in Victoria. Nobody has ever heard of you. Your only access through a website is through an SCL Canada link that, apparently, you say you're not. Yet, you got 40% of the Brexit contracts. You had all these front groups that were set up. The money was funnelled to you. I'm just amazed that you guys have those connections.
How did all that happen?
9:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
With regard to your first point about our website, we've had a website since before we were even incorporated, and I know that because I made it.
With respect to how we got the work from Brexit, we submitted a proposal to the Vote Leave campaign at the end of March, beginning of April 2016. Within a few weeks, they selected our proposal, and we started working for them once they became a designated campaign.
9:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
BeLeave came at the end of the campaign. They contacted us, and we did the work for them.
9:15 a.m.
Conservative
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Thank you for being here.
First of all, I wrote down, to get an understanding of your business, that you said you work with different campaigns and do online advertising, make websites, do digital marketing, and these types of things.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
You do software for going door-to-door, for phone calling, for emailing, for general stuff that campaigns work at.
9:15 a.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Is there some specific skill set that you have, or some access to a database, that would make you stand out? I assume that you have a lot of competitors even here in Canada, let alone in the United States, Europe, and that. Would that be fair to say?
9:15 a.m.
Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ
I can't say. In terms of the number of competitors, it's not a huge space in terms of the work we do.
With regard to your question about big databases, we don't have big databases of data. We don't keep data.
