Evidence of meeting #117 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 vote.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay.
This is probably hopeful of me to ask, but have you read the Information Commissioner's report?
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Then you're also unaware that the report references AIQ multiple times.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
In answer to Mr. Angus's questions, when you said that AIQ is not referred to in the documents, maybe you should have said, “I didn't read the two specific reports from the Electoral Commission and from the ICO. I don't know if they reference AggregateIQ, because I haven't read them, even though I'm the CEO of the company.”
That might have been the answer, right?
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay.
In evidence handed to British politicians, Facebook wrote that it found “certain billing and administration connections” between AIQ and Cambridge Analytica. Can you shed some light on that?
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
I believe that was all from work we had done together in early 2015 with SCL during the midterms. The billing and administration item that they were referring to was that they had given money to us to place ads. We were not able to get through all of the budget that they had assigned for that period. We simply directed Facebook to refund the money directly to them, as opposed to us and back.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Remind me—who was your main point of contact at SCL?
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Well, SCL was the bulk of your business, as I understand from your colleague Mr. Silvester, who knows far more about the business than you do. Who was your main point of contact at SCL for the bulk of the work you did?
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay.
Have you ever done any work with Emerdata?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Are you familiar with what that organization is?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
11:30 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
Are they something that spun up after SCL in the U.K.?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
It sounds like you have heard of them before. Have you ever done any work for them or been in contact with them?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
You've never been in contact with any of the individuals who are now part of Emerdata?
11:30 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, AggregateIQ
I couldn't tell you who is part of Emerdata.
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay.
Have you ever done any further work for SCL?
11:30 a.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I'm going to leave it there, Mr. Massingham, but I'll say this: frankly, I haven't gotten any answers from you. You appeared before before this committee and you lied. You're appearing before us again, and you're just not telling any part of the truth whatsoever.
I can't say you're lying, because I don't know if you've read the reports, but if you haven't read the reports, as the CEO of the company you should be embarrassed for yourself.