Evidence of meeting #113 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 know.

A video is available from Parliament.

On the agenda

MPs speaking

Also speaking

Jeff Silvester  Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

No. Again, I've said—

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

How did they know to coordinate with you?

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

How did they know to ask us to do work for them?

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

Mr. Massingham reached out to them there.

Who told you to coordinate? You said someone told you to get a hold of Veterans for Britain.

Who told you to do that?

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

I don't know.

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

Who told Mr. Massingham to do that?

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

To be fair, I don't know that this is exactly the case. As I said, I went through the email communication to try to find the answers to your questions, and I provided what I found.

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

You have a customer who shows up and spends £600,000, and you have no idea how they know about you, how they showed up—

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

With respect to—

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

—and you do the work not knowing if you're going to get paid by Vote Leave.

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

Well, we knew once we got the money that it was—

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

You have to spend the money, then you invoice them.

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

No, not with BeLeave....

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

Not with BeLeave....

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

No. We didn't know them from anything.

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

When they asked you to do the work, did they tell you that Vote Leave was going to pay for them?

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

They told us they got a donation. They didn't originally tell us the source.

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

They got a donation. They paid directly.

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

But they would both be paid—

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

They had been paid before—

11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

They informed you that Vote Leave was—

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

But then it was transferred directly to us when we gave them the invoice, or—

June 12th, 2018 / 11:15 a.m.

Liberal

Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC

I submit to you, Mr. Silvester, that you and Mr. Massingham specifically were coordinating this, and the fact that he did it when he was in the United Kingdom, irrespective of what you're saying about your not being subject to the jurisdictions of their offices and their laws, and you were coordinating with them in the United Kingdom, specifically Mr. Massingham, you were breaking their laws. When you were doing it in Canada you were, again, aiding and abetting in a crime. You helped by coordinating this effort, and that is illegal in the United Kingdom. You aided and abetted that crime. You happened to be sitting here in Canada, and that may or may not protect you. I don't know; I'm not a lawyer, but Mr. Massingham was in the U.K. when he was doing it. That makes him subject to their laws.

11:15 a.m.

Chief Operating Officer, AggregateIQ

Jeff Silvester

With respect to crimes, no, I don't believe any crimes have occurred in this regard. With respect to our aiding and abetting, no, we have not aided and abetted anyone to our knowledge, because it requires a knowledge of it. If someone else were doing some coordination through the campaign that we were unaware of, if Mr. Gettleson was sharing information, I don't know.