Thank you.
Through this process, Mr. Johnston, you've been given thousands of documents. You said that you had only so many weeks and that you had ample evidence that was provided to you, including intelligence. You interviewed officials, ministers, the Prime Minister, and members of the security and intelligence community. You then looked at unverified allegations that have been either floating around in the media or made by politicians. Then you took a look at the substance, the material that you were provided, to come to conclusions.
I want to walk you through some of the conclusions and ask for a little bit of elaboration, an explanation, as to why you came to those conclusions.
On the allegation that the PRC gave $250,000 to 11 political candidates for the 2019 election—that was the allegation in the Global News report of November 7, 2022—you stated in your report:
No recommendations were made to any Minister or the Prime Minister about this allegation, and therefore no recommendations were ignored.
Can you expand on how you came to this conclusion?