Information & Ethics Committee on Sept. 27th, 2018

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

We're specifically talking about BeLeave. According to the Electoral Commission in the U.K., BeLeave never actually placed ads, and yet you're saying you used that million dollars to place ads for BeLeave. That's not what you were talking about when you said that you asked Facebook to return the money. You're still saying that you placed ads.

[Zackary Massingham]

That's not what I'm talking about.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Okay. We have another contradiction there with other evidence, which seems to be a pattern here.

[Zackary Massingham]

The report I have seen from Facebook says that BeLeave and BeLeave's ad account did place ads, which is why I'm very confused as to how these other regulatory bodies can interpret that in any other way.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

Okay.

You said that you have no evidence of coordination between Vote Leave and BeLeave. Yet there are significant amounts of evidence that we have access to here in the committee that shows, in fact, that you did. You had meetings. You were in strategy sessions. There was the Slack channel and Google Drive. When you were answering the question from my colleague, you said you had no idea about evidence.

I'm going to ask you very simply. Are you aware of any money or any data that moved between Vote Leave and BeLeave?

[Zackary Massingham]

No, other than the donation that Vote Leave made to BeLeave.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

So you're not aware, nor did you participate in coordinating any data moving between those two.

[Zackary Massingham]

There was no data moved between those two organizations, as far as I saw.

[Anita Vandenbeld, Liberal, Ottawa West—Nepean, ON]

I'm going to share my time with Mr. Saini.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

Mr. Massingham, I'm going to ask some very simple questions. It's nothing to do with any of the things we're discussing. I want to get an idea of your role.

You and Mr. Silvester started this company. Is that true?

[Zackary Massingham]

That's correct.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

You are the only two principals of this company.

[Zackary Massingham]

That's correct.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

What are Mr. Silvester's qualifications? Does he have any post-secondary education?

[Zackary Massingham]

I believe so, yes.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

What did he study?

[Zackary Massingham]

He studied engineering.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

What are your qualifications? What's your post-secondary education?

[Zackary Massingham]

It's in business.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

That would have included courses in contracts, finance, accounting, marketing, the general gamut of business.

[Zackary Massingham]

That's correct.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

You have a business background, and Mr. Silvester has a computer engineering background, so you decide to open this company.

[Zackary Massingham]

Yes.

[Raj Saini, Liberal, Kitchener Centre, ON]

What is Mr. Silvester's title in this company?

[Zackary Massingham]

He is the chief operating officer.