Evidence of meeting #18 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.
Bloc
Richard Nadeau Bloc Gatineau, QC
On the business card Mr. Jaffer gave you and that we have a photocopy of, his address is the House of Commons, Parliament, in Ottawa. There is no mistaking that. Did he imply that it was a place where he could be reached?
As an Individual
He didn't say, either way. If I was going to send him an e-mail, I probably would have ended up sending it to a parliamentary account. We never were instructed to. We were working through Mr. Gillani, as our intermediary, or broker, or whatever you want to call it, to funding. We would always contact him and he would liaise with the sources of funding.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I'll share some of my time with Mr. Brown.
Mr. Harvey, thank you very much for your appearance here today. We appreciate this.
What we're all trying to do here in the committee is connect all the dots, and they seem to be disparate dots at times. There are two areas of relationship I'd like to focus on with you if I may, first with Mr. Gillani, and then with Mr. Jaffer and his partner.
I'm just trying to understand in more detail what your original relationship was with Mr. Gillani. Can you just succinctly give us a sense of how you started with him? I have a few questions related to that.
As an Individual
In February of 2009 we had begun discussions. By March 2009 we had an agreement in place that he was going to raise funds for us via a public raise. That was subsequently amended in June to a different type of public raise. By the time we got into the fall of 2009, we knew that it really wasn't going anywhere. We had started to wind down the relationship. Going into December 2009 it forced our company into bankruptcy because we didn't get any funding.
As an Individual
We were. I'd say it's a matter that has to be determined as to whether our company was actually public or whether we were sitting as a showpiece for a publicly traded company.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
I would presume either you were or you weren't public. If you were going through a process to perhaps become public, I think it's again different. Were you public or private?
As an Individual
There was the Nevada Corp., which was HD Retail Solutions, and there was the Ontario Corp., which was the operating business.
As to whether the deal had been consummated through what we were actually given is a matter at hand to be determined by the authorities.
Conservative
As an Individual
It was my first foray into anything that had to do with a public offering. We went with what we were told.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
How many meetings might you have had with Mr. Gillani? From the original meetings to when you decided in December of that year that it wasn't going anywhere, how many meetings would you have had with Mr. Gillani?
As an Individual
Oh, my gosh, there were dozens. We were meeting with him on a regular basis, trying to get our business plan together and getting updates on the status of the potential private funding and the public placement.
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
Among those dozens of meetings, if I might help you a little, at what point did Mr. Jaffer's name come into the picture?
Conservative
Ed Holder Conservative London West, ON
It was when you ultimately had lunch later that day or you had that meeting.
