Evidence of meeting #17 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was gillani.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—La Prairie, QC
Are you implying that Mr. Giorno lied when he wrote the letter?
As an Individual
I've never seen the letter, ma'am. Mr. Maertens told me he had a letter from Mr. Giorno and said that this was what the letter stated. I said that in fact I'd never spoken to Mr. Giorno. At that point in time Mr. Maertens said to me, “Well, it appears I don't have a complaint here. Thank you very much. Goodbye.”
As an Individual
The entire conversation lasted a grand total of 8 minutes and 35 seconds. I was on hold for a minute and a half of that. When I got off the phone, I made a rather agitated phone call to Arthur Hamilton.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—La Prairie, QC
You called him. What was said in that conversation?
Liberal
As an Individual
They were from me to Mr. Hamilton. I was not very happy with the characterization of that conversation in that context, and Mr. Hamilton was sympathetic to my call.
Liberal
Alexandra Mendes Liberal Brossard—La Prairie, QC
I have very short time, so I have one last question, if I may.
I'm curious about something that you put up on your Facebook page on Monday, April 19. You wrote something like, “No hearings, huh? Hm. Methinks someone spilled the beans to Jack. Now he wants it hushed. I guess he knows now how close this is going to hit home with a certain NDP, and he needs time to prep".
Can you tell us what you meant by this?
As an Individual
Yes. I get annoyed with people dipping into my Facebook account, so I—
As an Individual
I got annoyed by people quoting me on the matter, and I let a few friends of mine tear through it and spin the thing. As long as my Facebook account became an unreliable source of information, I could trust everybody to stop scrolling through my friends and emailing them to ask them about my childhood and everything else. That was successful; after that, people stopped quoting my Facebook account online.
As I've told a number of people, Facebook is always good for a spin.
Liberal
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
I would note that we're also prepared to go to the motion at any time. I realize that—
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Yasmin Ratansi
I think there are other committee members who are interested in asking questions, so if you want to be generous and give them your time and pass on your turn, that's fine. Would you like to pass?
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
Fifteen minutes may not be enough time, so I was just suggesting that if there were more time....
There are a few points I wanted to reference.
Previously Mr. Guimond mentioned that Mr. Jaffer said he had access to the Prime Minister's Office. People can make many claims. Did you for any second believe the claim by Mr. Jaffer that he actually had genuine access to the Prime Minister? Did you see any evidence that he had genuine access to the Prime Minister's Office?
As an Individual
Mr. Brown, let me be very, very specific for you on this. I've heard a lot of things suggesting that Mr. Jaffer had a back door to the Prime Minister's Office. Let me tell you that as a member of the common folk who have tried to find the front door to the Prime Minister's Office on this issue, I don't know how there's a back door, because there's not even a front door.
Conservative
Patrick Brown Conservative Barrie, ON
You know what? I think that's what I wanted to highlight.
You can repeat as many times as you like that Mr. Jaffer had access to the Prime Minister's Office, but that doesn't mean it's correct. You can repeat a wrong statement 10 times, and it's still wrong.
I mentioned this before on a show. Every year partisans of the Maple Leafs say, “We're going to make the playoffs this year.” It doesn't mean the Maple Leafs actually make the playoffs. It's boasting. I think that in this case there clearly was boasting, but with no actual facts to support the claim.
In your investigations of Mr. Gillani, did you find any evidence of even remote success, any success at all, in his lobbying or in accessing any part of government?
As an Individual
I can tell you that in researching Mr. Gillani's business activities going back 20 years, I haven't found one successful client, let alone one instance of success in accessing funding. The companies that he referenced were bogus; they'd never heard of him. It's a shell game. Not only have I not seen a grant, but I've never seen a paying client. I've never seen successful financing.