Evidence of meeting #131 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 proud.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
It's over half a million dollars. That's fine. Where did all of that money come from? Did every single dollar of that money come from inside of Ontario, yes or no?
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Yes, with respect to third party political—
December 11th, 2018 / 12:15 p.m.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
No, I didn't ask that. I asked with respect to the total global budget, not the advertising budget. You said you spent over half a million dollars last year.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Did every single dollar of that money come from people living in Ontario?
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
No, I didn't ask that. I mean the entire spend, the entire budget.
Let me put it another way, so you cannot avoid the question. Did you, in any way, receive money from people outside of Ontario?
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Are you talking specifically with respect to Ontario Proud's activities?
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
No. I didn't say in which respect. Did you receive money from outside of Ontario? That's the end of the question, period, with no caveats. Did you receive money from outside of Ontario?
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Yes, but not for third party political advertising.
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Well, I think it has to be stated because—
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
It doesn't have to be stated, because if you used money from foreign entities to run the operation and then just made sure that when you were doing advertising you did it from Ontario, that's another way of skirting around the rules.
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Zero dollars came from foreign entities.
Liberal
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
Stop trying to mislead us. It's a simple question. Are you receiving money, irrespective of its application, from outside of Ontario? I've asked it many times. You can say yes or no. I already know the answer. It's yes, so please say yes.
Lawyer and Director, Ontario Proud
Yes, but it's not foreign; it's Canadian.
Liberal
Frank Baylis Liberal Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC
I said “outside of Ontario”. That's not foreign.
I'll repeat it one last time—