Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
Thank you for being here, Ms. Simard and Mr. Perrault.
I will begin with some background. The Globe and Mail reported that the Chinese Consulate allegedly assisted a Toronto area candidate in his campaign and that CSIS recommended to the Prime Minister that the candidate be removed from the list of candidates. The Prime Minister responded that it was not within CSIS' purview to make recommendations on who should be a candidate.
As Commissioner of Canada Elections or Chief Electoral Officer, would you feel you had the legitimacy needed to make that kind of recommendation if you received credible information that a candidate was subject to foreign interference?