No, sir, you're not misunderstanding anything. The staff never told us how to run the organization. We had very vigorous debates in the board. I certainly never felt that the staff were dictating to me. We had a collegial relationship. When we were the majority we had critical discussions. I had many disagreements with Mr. Beauregard, and they were always respectful. I don't think anyone is questioning that.
I began by saying the problem began in the board. It was not a staff and board problem. It was a problem of a minority of a board trying to dominate and eliminate the majority. That was the real problem, which then spilled over into relations with the staff.
I must also add to this suggestion of staff rebellion. When I was at Rémy Beauregard's funeral, one of the staff members came up to me, after this letter was signed by 45 of the 47 staff members calling for the resignation. She told me, “You know, we deal with people in Afghanistan and Congo who risk their lives for what they believe in. We are willing to risk our livelihood for what we believe in.” They knew exactly what the consequences would be of their actions. This means that this isn't just, as Mr. Matas says, “people from the street” who think they own the organization. These are people who put their livelihood at risk. One must consider how extreme the circumstances would have been for them to do that.
If I may also add, on the suggestion that there was some conspiracy to achieve a sort of collective agreement in exchange for 45 of the 47 staff members to sign that letter, well, it's a remarkably creative theory. It's very disturbing, because the source of that accusation is one staff member, that same staff member who has made a complaint now to the syndicate saying he was pressured. What is disturbing is that on the day the director of communications, Charles Vallerand--one of the three managers who appeared before--was dismissed, Mr. Gauthier tried to promote that one staff member to the position of director of communications. If you like, we can discuss the evidence of that. Here we have people being promised a promotion for giving substance to conspiracy theories to smear the staff, to smear the international board members, to smear Mr. Beauregard. So it seems that everyone here is wrong, except those few board members, and I just don't think it adds up.