Madam Chair, we looked at this. It is very difficult to define. Again, as mentioned in response to an earlier question, there are cultural differences as well. The concept of a friend varies from one culture to another, potentially. We each have our own definition of who's a friend. Some people feel they've had two friends in their lifetime and some people think they have 2,000 friends. It's very flexible.
In the “Morneau II Report”, I had to look at the issue. I applied the criteria developed by my predecessor, which you just read out. It has to be done on a case-by-case basis.
In practice, what an MP could do is discuss the relationship with us, and we would essentially make a determination as to whether this person is or isn't a friend. In case there is a complaint, we could determine in advance whether somebody would be considered to be a friend according to these criteria, and again, the MP would be protected.
I'm afraid it's impossible to come up with a complete, forever applicable definition. It's absolutely impossible to do that because there are millions of permutations.