Evidence of meeting #26 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 know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Green Power Generation Corporation
You gave a huge preamble. If you'd let me just qualify....
As I mentioned during that testimony...it was a bit frazzled. As I said, I was ill-prepared. I don't think I wanted to mislead the committee; I wanted to try to be forthright.
I had forgotten, quite frankly, about that website because all of our business was being done from our GPG website. When it was brought to my attention, I pulled it down.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Jaffer, you took the time and effort to take the website down.
Green Power Generation Corporation
No. There's usually a hosting company that deals with websites.
Conservative
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
So the news story runs in the midst of all these news stories that are running. You read the news story, you say that's inappropriate, “I've been found out”, or something. You instruct the folks to take it down. So you go as far as that. And then when you come before our committee, you say, “I don't remember that website ever existing.” I mean, that's not plausible. That's not plausible.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
And again today, in the letter and the testimony you provide, you repeat that.
Green Power Generation Corporation
But there's some information that you're not privy to from the Conservative Party. I was instructed by the Conservative Party.... On the same day that website came down.... Again, I wasn't paying attention. It was my fault and my responsibility to my website. That website was developed soon after the election, and then, as I said, I forgot about it. It was there as information for people to try to get a hold of me. The party did bring to my attention, on the day that this news broke, that I had the Conservative logo on that website. Immediately, I said, “I don't know. Sorry. I've forgotten. I'll take care of it.” I phoned the web-hosting company. I said, “Could you please just take the website down. It will be the easiest. It's causing too much trouble.” That's one of the reasons that happened. It was not because of.... I didn't look at the detail of the website.
Again, I take responsibility. It was just simply because of direction from the Conservative Party saying, “You have a Conservative logo. Please deal with this.” So I thought the best way to deal with it was to remove the website.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Jaffer, you deny that you ever gave out your MP business cards to people you were meeting with regard to your current business.
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Jaffer, we have heard testimony that has refuted that. We even had Ian Harvey from HD Retail Solutions here, who was very clear in terms of his testimony that you had given it to him. In his estimation, that was intended to give him a sense that you were well connected to the Conservative Party or the Conservative government. You had stated, matter of factly...you had dismissed Mr. Martin's question as simply being, I think you said, just a Toronto Star media story. You dismissed it. Now we have, clear as day, evidence that in fact you were handing out that business card.
Do you feel that you at least owe us an apology on that?
Green Power Generation Corporation
I don't know what I can say, Mr. Warkentin, other than what I did in my opening statement, that this was not a habit for me to do this. That's why when I heard the allegations I was a bit surprised. Nothing on that card is relevant other than my name. The only thing it would advertise and reinforce is that I was a loser after the last election. Why would I like to continue to promote that, I don't know. I did say--
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
Mr. Jaffer, I believe we're not going to get a clear answer on that. I have only 30 seconds left--
Green Power Generation Corporation
If I could just finish, I did qualify that it was--
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I have 10 seconds left, Mr. Jaffer, and I need to ask you one thing. At the request of the Conservative Party, my understanding is that you took the logo down. Subsequently, you took down the website. Is that true?
Green Power Generation Corporation
No. I remember this directly because there was so much wildness at the time. I forget the president's name now, but when he called me or sent me an e-mail saying that there was a Conservative logo on my website, I went to it, I saw it, I said, “Oh, my goodness.” I phoned the company that hosted my website and said, “Look, can you just take the website down? It's causing a lot of problems. I need to look at it closely in the future. Just remove it.” He sent me a note subsequently saying thank you. The website was down after that and I never put it back up.
Liberal
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
Mr. Jaffer, on April 21, this was the exchange with my colleague Pat Martin. It reads:
Mr. Pat Martin: I want you to clarify this.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: I can tell you, sir, that none of these things--
Mr. Pat Martin: Have you ever circulated your MP's business card after you ceased to be an MP?
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: I don't even understand what good that would provide. It would--
Mr. Pat Martin: It would only imply that you still have some sort of relationship to Parliament, even though you're no longer a member of Parliament.
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: As I said, I'll go back to my opening statement, because I think it's clear that--
Mr. Pat Martin: Can you answer that question first?
Mr. Rahim Jaffer: I told you I never did those things.
You opened up your comments by saying that you wanted to clarify. You ignored advice, inadvertently providing incomplete information. I put to you, sir, that this wasn't incomplete information; what you told this committee on April 21 was outright false. Is that right?
Green Power Generation Corporation
Mr. Davies, if there was a habit of this happening--
NDP
Don Davies NDP Vancouver Kingsway, BC
I didn't ask you if it's a habit. I asked you if it was false, or if you're saying that is an incomplete or a false statement you made at this committee. It's an easy question.
