Information & Ethics Committee on June 12th, 2018

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

To your knowledge, you're not aiding and abetting. However, you knew very well the rules about donations. You knew about the court case. You told me about that. You knew about all of these laws. You knew enough to tell the commissioner that you're not subject to their jurisdiction. You have Mr. Massingham stating that “AggregateIQ works in full compliance within all legal and regulatory requirements in all jurisdictions where we operate.” Those are his words.

[Jeff Silvester]

Correct.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

But clearly he was in the United Kingdom operating and not following their laws, and you were here operating and not following their laws.

[Jeff Silvester]

Except he was following their laws.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

No, he wasn't, because it was illegal to coordinate.

[Jeff Silvester]

But we weren't coordinating.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

You said that it was illegal to coordinate, and you were the centre of this coordination effort.

[Jeff Silvester]

Correct, but we weren't coordinating.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

You were at the centre of this coordination effort and you just said “correct”—

[Jeff Silvester]

Except for the—

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

—and that means that you're aiding and abetting in the coordination, which is a crime.

[Jeff Silvester]

Can I just say one thing?

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith]

I'll allow you to finish, and then we'll pull that line of questioning.

[Jeff Silvester]

There is a investigation now by the U.K. Electoral Commission into all of this. They are working through it. It's their job to determine if anything illegal happened. If they come out and say that something we did was wrong that we were unaware of, okay, but I don't believe that's the case.

So for you to say this is illegal, you're not a lawyer, you're not in the U.K., and you don't have all the information.... It's those types of assumptions that have been a real problem. There is a lot of miscommunication, but all I can do is tell you what I know. I know we didn't do anything wrong.

[Frank Baylis, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

What you told me that you know is this: that you're not subject to their jurisdiction. That's what you told me, and that's what you put in writing. That's in fact what you didn't tell me. When I asked you the question the first time, you didn't answer me. I found that out when I went through the documents.

[The Vice-Chair, Liberal, Nathaniel Erskine-Smith]

Mr. Baylis, thank you very much.

Mr. Picard, you have one last question.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.

Do you speak Japanese or a Middle Eastern language?

[Jeff Silvester]

Sorry, Japanese or which?

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

A Middle Eastern language. I'm just checking, because you have in your files close to 300,000 websites. What's the purpose of having that many websites in your files?

[Jeff Silvester]

Sorry, 300,000 websites? If you could give me....

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Well, I don't have time to list all 300,000 names. I think that domain is part of a number of domains that is more than one file. In one file there are close to 300,000 websites.

[Jeff Silvester]

I would have to look into it, but I can definitely respond in writing when you follow up, because I don't know what you're talking about, but I'll certainly look into it.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Do you fabricate in your code false browsing history for specific individuals?

[Jeff Silvester]

No.

[Michel Picard, Liberal, Montarville, QC]

Thank you.