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Evidence of meeting #209 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mining.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Evidence of meeting #209 for Finance in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was mining.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Thank you.
The question, then, is, have you reported any of these matters to law enforcement, Ms. Krause?
11:50 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
What do you mean by “law enforcement”?
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Any body that has the job of investigating whether statutes of Canada have been violated.
11:50 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
I have reported this to Elections Canada, yes.
11:50 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
I'm very disappointed with their conclusion. They ignored the key evidence that I think they should have considered.
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I'll not take your time. We'll shut the clock off for a minute.
I wonder, Ms. Krause, if you could forward to us the report that you got back from Elections Canada on this investigation.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
The economic policy of the government has largely been driven by Mr. Butts. You said he had received a $400,000 payment, which he claimed was severance.
Have you ever heard of someone getting $400,000 for severance when they quit their job?
11:50 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Wayne Easter
I'm afraid that question is out of order.
Mr. Poilievre, I said that we're not going down a political attack road when we're dealing with the budget implementation act unless it relates to the act, and this doesn't.
Go ahead. Rephrase your question.
11:50 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
Thank you very much.
Do you think that Mr. Butts, who received this payment, may have influenced economic policy as a result of the payment in manners that relate to budgets, or anything else?
11:50 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
All I wanted to do in this testimony today was to flag this issue for this committee.
I recognize that it's a complicated issue and there's not enough time to get into the details of it. However, what concerns me is that there are big issues with regard to the charities directorate and the charitable system which are not addressed at all. Meanwhile, some very minor issues are.
That's the point I wanted to make. It is simply that there is some tinkering at the edges with some minor issues. Meanwhile, as I've shown, there are some very big problems, and the budget does nothing to address them. That's simply the point I wanted to make.
As for the details of the political activity audits, it's clear to me, from my more than 20 years' experience in the charitable sector, that there were some violations of the law and that those are going on with impunity.
I just want to flag that for your knowledge and for this committee's consideration going forward.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
The government claims that the budget is giving half a billion dollars to media organizations to avoid having distortionary interference in our elections.
Do you believe the kinds of foreign interference that happened in the last election will be solved by this half a billion dollar subsidy to media outlets?
May 7th, 2019 / 11:55 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
No.
From my extensive dealings with Elections Canada, I have learned an important lesson. As they told me after a four-hour interview, the problem needs to be resolved not with Elections Canada but in the charities directorate.
They said that if the CRA allows Canadian charities to Canadianize money from outside of Canada, then in the eyes of Elections Canada, it's Canadian. There's nothing Elections Canada can do if the money originated from outside of Canada, goes through Canadian charities and then is used in elections-related activism. It is really up to the CRA.
This is my broader, bigger concern. The charities directorate is not enforcing the law. I have shown many examples of this.
In one case, I found one charity where it took 13 years to complete the audit. Some of the transactions that were deemed illegal occurred more than 15 years ago. We clearly have a charities directorate that is not able to enforce the Income Tax Act.
11:55 a.m.
Conservative
Pierre Poilievre Conservative Carleton, ON
We talked about Mr. Butts getting this $400,000.
I want to very quickly move on to the issue of electoral interference by outside and foreign groups.
Would you say it's possible that these same groups will interfere in the next election the way they did in the last?
11:55 a.m.
Researcher and Writer, As an Individual
I wouldn't speculate on that. But I can tell you that they had quite an influence, I would say, in the previous election, and that was their first crack at it.
11:55 a.m.
Liberal