Information & Ethics Committee on April 24th, 2018

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay, so perhaps you can explain. What was the purpose of the Google Drive that you, Mr. Massingham, had access to, and the owner of which was Ms. Woodcock, the chief operating officer of Vote Leave, but it was a BeLeave Google Drive. Explain to this committee how that can possibly happen if there was no coordination whatsoever.

[Zackary Massingham]

I can't speak to that. I was unaware that there was even a BeLeave drive within a Vote Leave drive.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

You didn't have access to that drive?

[Zackary Massingham]

I may have had access to it, but I was unaware it was there.

[Jeff Silvester]

If I could clarify, we did have access to the Vote Leave drive.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

The Vote Leave Google Drive?

[Jeff Silvester]

There was a Vote Leave Google Drive that we had access to, and that was a place where the campaign would put.... When you send an email, it can't contain too many pictures, like your photos. You might put it on something like Dropbox, and that was what that drive was used for: when they're sending us large sets of images.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I want to be clear. You're getting 2.7 million pounds in an ad spend from the Vote Leave campaign, over 600,000 pounds from the BeLeave campaign, you have access to a Google Drive, and the owner of the Google Drive is the chief operating officer of Vote Leave, but it's a BeLeave Google Drive, and you have access to it, Mr. Massingham, and you have no idea why, and you don't remember?

[Zackary Massingham]

That's correct. We didn't collaborate on....

[Jeff Silvester]

If I could clarify a bit—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Yes, please clarify, because that's crazy.

[Jeff Silvester]

The drive itself was a Vote Leave drive, and images were on that drive. We have access to things like that, that we might use for advertising. Appreciate we did not have access to the entire drive. In looking back, we—

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Do you have communications from Mr. Grimes directing you how to spend the 600,000 pounds?

[Jeff Silvester]

The directions for Mr. Grimes were done in the BeLeave Slack channel, and that's where it is.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Can you provide those Slack records to this committee?

[Jeff Silvester]

I think we still have them, but I can check, yes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Okay, make sure you have them, and please provide to this committee any direction you received from Mr. Grimes on the ad spend of 600,000 pounds.

[The Chair, Conservative, Bob Zimmer]

You have 10 seconds.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Have you had conversations with Mr. Grimes post-referendum, or anyone from the Vote Leave campaign?

[Jeff Silvester]

Intermittently, if they get a request from the information commissioner.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Any conversations about the Electoral Commission's investigation?

[Jeff Silvester]

Yes, if they have questions about things that we did on their behalf, they would ask us.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

Did you communicate with Mr. Grimes and with anyone from Vote Leave about the Electoral Commission's investigation?

[Jeff Silvester]

Only afterwards, yes.

[Nathaniel Erskine-Smith, Liberal, Beaches—East York, ON]

I'd also like any correspondence between Mr. Grimes and anyone from Vote Leave about the Electoral Commission's investigation provided to this committee. Is that fair?