Mr. Chair, through you, the minister would have us believe that there is no harm and no foul in all of this. She comes here with a sort of O.J. Simpson defence, this Hail Mary pass that's trying to salvage something of her credibility and to laugh it off as a harmless mistake, as some innocent misunderstanding.
I mean, honestly, what planet do you live on, Minister?
You've painted a picture, by your actions, that Kairos' funding was denied because CIDA thought they shouldn't get the funding. That's the picture you've painted. It's the fabrication that you've allowed to stand and that you've vigorously defended right up until this moment, where this tribunal may well find you in contempt of Parliament.
You've now had this miraculous conversion on the road to Damascus that all of a sudden you do remember--that, ah, yes, it was Stephanie Machel who you instructed to insert the word “not”. The very day after you misled the foreign affairs committee, you learned the facts: who actually did this.
It doesn't paint a very good picture, Minister.
Reasonable people would conclude that Kairos lost its funding because Margaret Biggs and others said they didn't believe Kairos should be funded any longer, whereas we believe Kairos lost its funding because of some ideological prejudice on behalf of Jason Kenney, who somehow got it in his mind that Kairos is anti-Semitic, which is insane.
Now, listen, you've said that it's common practice to insert “not” or “do not” because there is no option on your forms for “minister disagrees”.
By the way, I learned this because I managed to get a copy of your presentation. You gave it to the clerk in one official language, which is not very helpful to us because she's not allowed to circulate it. I had to get a photocopy of the stuff that your guys distributed to the media.