Thank you, Madam Chair.
We touched upon this in the last meeting. Addressing the elephant in the room, I'm a parliamentary intern alumnus, and I'm very, very proud of this program. This program gave me and young Canadians across the country one of the biggest legs up we could ever hope for. It brought together diverse Canadians from all sorts of different backgrounds and geographical regions of this country, to learn and experience this place in a way that is unimaginable except through the parliamentary internship program.
I am here because of the parliamentary internship program and friendships with people like Anne Dance especially, and her brother, Mark, who was in the program with me.
I believe that the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner was wrong when he made this ruling. I'd like Anne Dance, if she could, to comment more extensively on the point she made—that young interns are not gifts.
Anne, can you elaborate on that point, please, and the significance of that?