Certainly. I did in 2010, when the news broke, not only about my story but of course also about the fact that Ms. Ouimet—the controversial first Public Sector Integrity Commissioner—hadn't even considered my file to any degree whatsoever. It took the media appearance of me and others. It became sort of a partial cause célèbre to say, look, it's so obvious there was wrongdoing in my case. Why didn't you do something?
Later on I met with Monsieur Dion and some of the members of his staff. I remember sitting alone in a room with a legal adviser. She'd taken me away. I was so prone to recording comments because things had gotten so out of hand over the previous five years that I would record any of my interactions with any public servants. I had forgotten my recorder. That day, she got me in the office—because she was so friendly—and she closed the door. She turned from Jekyll to Hyde, and she said to me, “Why do you want to get anything else? Haven't you got enough? You got enough media coverage. Why do you want any more from our office?” I was absolutely floored that she genuinely saw my reporting wrongdoing as a personal attention-getting mechanism, when it wasn't at all about me but merely to help those who would come after me or others who would be treated in the same manner.
I availed myself of the legal representation, of the $3,000. It took almost $1,000 to draw up the justification for the bill, so my lawyer ended up getting about $2,000 out of that deal. It was completely inadequate. I know that's beyond the committee and the private member's bill.
I would further add that David Hutton and I sat on the advisory committee of Mr. Dion. He was less than remarkable in that position. Why would he be anything more than remarkable, since he was just waiting for his next job? He chose to speak out when it was probably going to be his last job. That's the problem when you appoint bureaucrats, because they rely upon PCO and the goodwill of government to get their next appointment. Hopefully on the agenda in the future will be an appointments process that takes individuals who are neutral and non-partisan and who are not chosen by PCO or PMO.
Thank you.