Through you, Chair, I believe what we heard today, then, from Ms. Telford and the testimony she provided was the following.
Today, she was asked a series of very simple questions. They were questions that did not require top security clearance, and yet there was a failure to give proper answers. We asked questions with regard to the Prime Minister's knowledge. We asked questions about the briefings he received. We asked questions with regard to whether or not he was informed concerning Beijing's interference in our elections.
Ms. Telford refused to provide simple answers to these very simple questions. We know that numerous intelligence documents were made available to the media and have been reported to the public. We referenced those documents throughout our questions today, and again the questions we put forward were skirted or altogether shot down.
Now, what's quite convenient is that Ms. Telford cannot confirm the existence of documents that contain, of course, the most damning information concerning the Prime Minister. With that, I'm talking about documents that reveal Beijing's interference in our elections and Beijing's motivation to elect Liberals to the House of Commons by providing paid staff members to these campaigns, as well as funnelling hidden, secret and illegal money to them. Ms. Telford was not able to discuss these documents, conveniently. What's interesting, however, is that Ms. Telford had no problem whatsoever in denying the existence of some documents, but when it came to this document, the document that shows Beijing's interference in order to elect Liberals, Ms. Telford did not deny the existence of that one, so I'll allow her silence to speak for itself.
However, Ms. Telford also told us that the Prime Minister is briefed regularly. Ms. Telford also told us that she is the Prime Minister's right-hand individual, constantly with him, and that—and I'll quote directly—the Prime Minister reads “everything” and there is “nothing [that] is ever kept from the Prime Minister”.
Given the fact that the Prime Minister reads everything and that nothing is ever kept from him, the committee must then assume that the Prime Minister was aware and that the Prime Minister chose to actively ignore and avoid the information, the briefings and the warnings that were given to him by our top security and intelligence agencies in this country when it came to Beijing's interference. One must conclude that the only reason to turn a blind eye to such information is certainly not in the best interests of the Canadian electorate, and therefore only in the best interests of the Liberal Party of Canada, which of course benefited from this interference by getting both money and paid staff in order to secure their ridings.
I'll leave it there.