You were a political minister and you had a colleague who had been your assistant for 10 years. So you had a privileged relationship. It is normal to protect one's minister and for him to have told you that something was going on and that you had to pay attention to it. Perhaps he heard some things that made it necessary for him to protect you. In the context of all those contracts totalling $5 billion and concerning the renovations to the House of Commons and Parliament buildings, you never heard that people were involved in that, that there might be problems and that red flags would be raised? No one ever told you anything?
On November 16th, 2010. See this statement in context.