Thank you very much, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Guité, as you know, we are trying to look at the discrepancy in testimony between our public accounts committee and what was done at the Gomery commission, trying to get a clarification of what the truth is in either one of them, because there are clearly some discrepancies.
In committee on April 22, 2004, under oath you testified on the issue of political direction. In response to a question from one of my colleagues, you said:
There is quite a bit of difference between political interference and political input. To me, they are two completely different things. And to say that they interfered...with the selection of agencies—never. I would not let them do that, because ministers are not to interfere with the selection process.
To a further question, “Did they have input into the program over who got the sponsorship and which sponsorships we were going to do?”, you responded: “Obviously.”
Was that an accurate statement, and do you still stand by the statement you made then?