Evidence of meeting #125 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was anderson.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Okay.
The text goes on to say, “I have Felix walking in, and Shawna every 15 minutes.” That's in this text message. Was Randy there in Edmonton?
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
The text continues and says, “Calling Randy now to advise.” Was Randy the principal? Is that why Randy needed to be made aware?
As an Individual
You're referring to a text message, Mr. Chairman, from 2022. Randy Boissonnault...I did not speak to him in 2022, nor did I send him a text message. He supplied his text messages to the Ethics Commissioner, who has ruled that we haven't spoken.
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
Let's put it this way. On September 6, 2022, you said you needed to update Randy on a wire transfer because the “west coast is closing in 7 minutes and Randy is in the Vancouver office”.
Do you know why Randy was in Vancouver on September 6, 2022? Liberal cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault was in Vancouver on a cabinet retreat.
You say it's an autocorrect. That's quite the autocorrect, sir.
As an Individual
Mr. Chairman, I resent the fact that the member is making an accusation against me. As I said—
Conservative
Larry Brock Conservative Brantford—Brant, ON
I'm not making an accusation. I'm showing you and reading your text—
As an Individual
If you're allowed to ask a question, I should be able to answer.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
We're past the time, Mr. Barrett. Thank you.
We go to Mr. Fisher, who's online. Mr. Fisher, you have six minutes. Go ahead, please.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
I thank our witnesses for being present today.
Before I begin my questions to Ms. Poon I will share a few thoughts on what brought us here today. Twice now Conservative members have run roughshod over reasonable process by calling committee meetings and calling witnesses, only to find out, after the passage of those motions, that the Ethics Commissioner looked into the issue and found no issue. We saw it reported in several media outlets that the Ethics Commissioner wrote to Minister Boissonnault to let him know that he reviewed the information twice. We saw this, and here we are. This is the second time the commissioner looked into this innuendo and found that there was no cause for concern. It's also the second time the Conservatives ignored the response from the Ethics Commissioner.
Conservative
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
—in order to have this meeting. A majority of the members voted to have this meeting. It wasn't the Conservatives, the NDP, the Bloc or the Liberals, nor was it I who called this meeting. We are acting at the will of the committee. I remind you of that, Mr. Fisher.
You have five minutes and 10 seconds. Go ahead.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I will say that, when we had those conversations on those, on our side of the bench we all said that we have an Ethics Commissioner, we provided the information to him, so let him do his work, rule on this on his own time frame and then come back to talk about it if there's an issue. We didn't decide to do that, so here we are today—again. After the second time the Ethics Commissioner said there's nothing to see here, we are still here.
Again, on our side, Mr. Chair, we do our best to stick to the facts.
Ms. Poon, we heard a great deal, as you put it, of innuendo, conjecture and, I want to add, maybe even pure exaggeration from some members on this committee in the past few months. I would like to give this opportunity to you, if you could, to go over some of the basic facts. Can you confirm you have never lobbied Minister Boissonnault?
As an Individual
Thank you for the opportunity to set the record straight.
I have never lobbied Minister Boissonnault or his staff.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that Minister Boissonnault has never set up a meeting, with federal officials or staff in other ministers' offices, on your behalf?
As an Individual
Minister Boissonnault has never helped me set up any meetings with any officials in any offices.
Liberal
Darren Fisher Liberal Dartmouth—Cole Harbour, NS
Can you confirm that the political staff you met with at Finance Canada reported to Minister Freeland, not to Minister Boissonnault?
As an Individual
All the staff I met with reported to Minister Freeland. They in no way reported to Minister Boissonnault—not in any way whatsoever.