Procedure and House Affairs Committee on Feb. 8th, 2011

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

I call the meeting to order.

This is meeting number 42 of the Standing Committee on Procedure and House Affairs. We're here pursuant to the order of reference of November 29, a question of privilege relating to the premature disclosure, on November 18, of a confidential draft report of the Standing Committee on Finance.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Mr. Chair, may I please have a few questions?

Could we have the witness sworn in? Can we ask the witness to be flexible? If we have more questions, we don't want her coming back. I know that you have allocated one hour. So can we have that cleared? If there are questions, then could she stay for the hour?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Let's get to that point and--

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

And could we set aside some time after the witness is gone to discuss committee business--five or ten minutes?

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay--just for you, though.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Thank you.

[Marcel Proulx, Liberal, Hull—Aylmer, QC]

I'd like to be included in that.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Okay, now we're not doing it.

Ms. Hamilton, are you going to do that first? Go ahead.

[Lynne Hamilton, Vice-President, Public Affairs, GCI Group, As an Individual]

I, Lynne Hamilton, do swear that the evidence I shall give in this examination shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Thank you very much.

Ms. Hamilton, you have a short opening statement. Please go ahead with that. We'll go to questioning after that.

[Lynne Hamilton]

Good morning, everyone.

Mr. Chair, I'd like to thank the committee for inviting me here today. I understand and appreciate the serious nature of the matter at hand. I would like to provide the committee with a number of basic facts.

The document came to me unsolicited in an e-mail on Thursday, November 18, at 8:38 a.m. When I received it, I glanced at my Blackberry and noted that it had been sent by a friend, Russell Ullyatt. At 12:37 p.m., I sent a quick reply without fully reading the e-mail's contents. Two hours later Mr. Russell and I exchanged e-mails on a personal matter that had nothing to do with the report. At 3:20 in the afternoon, Mr. Russell called me and we had a brief conversation on the phone on a matter completely unrelated to the report.

Shortly after that conversation I printed several documents for follow-up, including the attachment to Mr. Ullyatt's e-mail. I thumbed through the report for about five minutes, reviewed the other documents that I had printed, and placed them in my locked desk drawer. I left the office shortly after five o'clock and locked my door.

The next morning, at 7:15, I received a phone call from Mr. Ullyatt indicating that he had been terminated from his position. I asked why and he said it was for sending out the report. It was at that point I realized the report was confidential and the serious error that Mr. Ullyatt had made. When I returned to the office on Monday I shredded the report and double-deleted the e-mail.

In summary, I did not ask for or expect to receive the report. The only copy I had, I destroyed. I did not share the contents of the report with anyone.

Mr. Chair, I'd be pleased to respond to any questions the committee has.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

Excellent. Thank you very much.

We'll do a round of seven minutes and then we'll do a round of five minutes after that.

Ms. Ratansi, are you leading for your group?

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Yes.

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

And thank you, Ms. Hamilton, for being here.

Before I start, I just want to know whether you have discussed your appearance before this committee with anyone. Have you hired counsel? If so, who is your counsel?

[Lynne Hamilton]

I have counsel. His name is Henry Brown.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Henry Brown, thank you.

Since the incident of November 18, have you been in contact with Mr. Ullyatt for any reason? Or have you had any conversations with him?

[Lynne Hamilton]

I have not.

Following the morning of the 18th, he contacted me by phone. I have not had any conversations with Mr. Ullyatt.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Before I ask you the question, I want to find out from the clerk if Ms. Hamilton has supplied any more e-mails to the committee.

The motion that the committee passed is a parliamentary motion, a motion of the committee, asking you to produce old documents and communications between you and Mr. Ullyatt. We find that other people, the other lobbyists, complied with it. You only sent two e-mails, and there are more, according to the communication we have received from Mr. Ullyatt.

Why didn't you comply?

[Lynne Hamilton]

I wasn't asked for them. I was originally requested to produce documents related to “any draft documents from a committee of Parliament”. The committee clerk clarified that I was to produce documents “related to any House of Commons committee reports”. The other e-mails don't relate to the committee reports or draft reports, and therefore I did not include them.

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

This is in contradiction to what Mr. Ullyatt sent us. In that e-mail traffic, there is commuication with you on issues about the draft report, etc., and you yourself said there was a lot of communication with him, because you could not pick up the phone. So there was this e-mail traffic. The traffic dealt with the confidential draft report.

Why do we have only two, and why are you not complying with the motion? The second motion ordered you to produce papers, and we still haven't received them. Could you explain why?

[Lynne Hamilton]

We looked at two or three clarifications from the chair to ensure that we were providing the information you sought. My company has done a full search of all e-mails between me and Mr. Ullyatt. I have them with me. If the committee wishes to see them, I'm happy to give them to the clerk.

I have redacted some names of one person referred to in the messages, because of a privacy concern only. I'm happy to share this information with you. But I responded to the order as we read it, namely, that you wanted to see only the ones that had something to do with the report. The phone calls and following messages of the day that I had with Mr. Ullyatt had nothing to do with the committee report and were personal in nature.

[Lynne Hamilton]

I complied with the order to the best of my ability based on the knowledge and the three clarifications we had with the clerk, as I have indicated--

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

Sorry, you said you had clarifications with the clerk or with the chair? You said you spoke to the chair--

[Terence Young, Conservative, Oakville, ON]

A point of order, please.

I am somewhat uncomfortable with this process. I understand it's a legitimate process and everyone's going by the rules, but I get really concerned when the committee members begin to berate people who come before us to give information, and interrupt them--

[Yasmin Ratansi, Liberal, Don Valley East, ON]

That is not a point of order, Mr. Chair.

[The Chair, Conservative, Joe Preston]

When you're the chair you can make the rulings.