I think it makes a big difference sir, with all due respect.
It makes a big difference because the committee members presented to you on May 9 a series of red flags that, for someone with your intellect and your business acumen, and the fact that you are a lawyer, the fact that you are the chair of the foundation, should have raised a number of red flags.
I know that you went into that committee, as you went into this committee, talking about “unfair” ungrounded allegations. Well, let's talk about facts.
We're not talking about simple intelligence. We're not talking about simple rumours. We're talking about an intercepted recorded conversation between CSIS and one of the donors, Mr. Bin Zhang, and a Toronto consulate, who was promised as follows. The donor, Mr. Bin Zhang, was told by the Communist Party in Beijing to offer the money in the hopes of influencing the new Liberal leader, Justin Trudeau, and—surprise, surprise—money flows in, the foundation reaches an agreement with Mr. Zhang and Mr. Gensheng, and within five months, both of those businessmen, those Chinese businessmen—not Canadian businessmen—were granted private access to the newly minted Prime Minister. That didn't raise a red flag to you.
Furthermore, sir, we have a real discrepancy when it comes to the tax receipts.
The first tax receipt I brought to your attention was issued to the Millennium Golden Eagle International Canadian-incorporated company, with an address in Hong Kong, and then Beijing interfered, contacted the foundation, contacted one of your employees and said, “Sorry, wrong address, send it to Beijing.” I told you, sir, that the address that Millennium Golden Eagle International (Canada) Inc. originally gave the foundation was fake. A reporter went to Hong Kong and knocked on the door. They'd never heard of the corporation and they'd never heard of Mr. Bin Zhang or knew Mr. Niu Gensheng.
That didn't raise any red flags to you as the chair of the board either—did it?