Government Operations Committee on Dec. 7th, 2010

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

I had one gathering at the other restaurant, the Piccola Italia, I think, with Mr. Blackburn. There were maybe around 10 people. At the Il Ritrovo restaurant, that was small—$20, maybe. There were less than 100 people the first time at the Notre-Dame-de-Pompei church during the election. I would have to go back to the financial report to remember how many people were there, but--

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

But in spite of all your past activity and all the contacts you would have made over the years and the parties and seeing who supported the party, you weren't able to sell any tickets for the cocktail in question?

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

Yes, but the objective was if could get around the $10,000 that was missing. So when Mr. Sauvé and Mr. Padulo told me that with them both....And I made a few calls and people were not able to come. They were not interested to be—

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

So you basically left it up to Mr. Sauvé and Mr. Padulo to sell the tickets.

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

Yes.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

What you're telling us basically is that Sauvé just appeared, you met him once, and he offered to help out.

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

I learned a few months later that his company was in difficulty. I'm not close to Mr. Sauvé, so I don't know what he's doing.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

Where did you tell Mr. Sauvé and Mr. Padulo.... I mean, you're the president of the riding association. You were talking about organizing this. You must have said to them who they would have people send cheques to. Where did the cheques go? Did the cheques go to you and then to the treasurer? Or where did they go?

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

The cheques were made to the riding association and they were brought to the cocktail by the people who were attending the event. Some may have come after, like all events.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

So the cheques came to you? Or to whom?

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

Some were given to me and some to the financial agent. He was there at the event and everything was made—

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

In view of that, you would have to have a pretty good idea of which of the two people sold the tickets, right?

[Gilles Prud'homme]

No, because if someone comes in and gives me a cheque, I don't necessarily know who it is.

Afterward, we made sure that the people had given us personal cheques and that the addresses matched. That's it.

[Geoff Regan, Liberal, Halifax West, NS]

But you said earlier that Mr. Sauvé sold most of the tickets.

[Gilles Prud'homme]

At the entrance, I didn't ask who had sold the tickets. A person arrived, gave me their cheque, hung up their coat in the cloakroom and met the people they wanted to meet. I didn't follow each person who entered.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Regan.

Thank you, Mr. Prud'Homme.

I'm going to suspend for a moment while we go in camera.

I want to thank you, Mr. Prud'Homme, for making the effort to come all the way from Montreal this morning to visit with the committee. I thank you for your testimony.

[Gilles Prud'Homme]

I'm sorry

I apologize for arriving late. It isn't out of a lack of respect for Parliament, as was suggested. People should not take advantage of parliamentary privilege to say just anything about anybody. Words don't die.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Thank you, Mr. Prud'Homme.

We'll suspend for one minute while the cameras get turned off and the room gets cleared.

[Proceedings continue in camera]