Evidence of meeting #130 for Public Safety and National Security in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was videos.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
The indictment alleges that this Kalashnikov character edited your videos in the past.
Is this true, and in the past have you allowed others to edit your videos? Is this a common practice?
As an Individual
The editing process is just the cutting and adding of audio. In fact, any sort of text that would be on screen or any sorts of words said by me were entirely under my control. They had these individuals under the fake name editing the initial videos, and then I got an American editor assigned to me later on. I also edited some videos in-house, but once again the editing process has no control over the actual content of the videos.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
You would sign off on the final content of the videos?
As an Individual
Yes, I would go in and I would say, “Cut at two minutes 30—it's going too long—and add a soundtrack at three minutes.” I had full control.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Can you say for sure whether or not this Kalashnikov person was involved in the editing at any time?
As an Individual
I don't know. They had I believe it was someone under a fake name.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Okay, thank you for that.
The U.S. indictment alleges that commentators were paid upwards of $100,000 to produce this content. Was this what you found in your experience was what content creators were being paid by Tenet?
As an Individual
This was one of the large surprises for me when the indictment dropped. I was on $275,000 for all operations, and that was not my personal salary. I was contracted to make three videos a week, news reports and two mini-documentaries. I had multiple staff, including a researcher and an assistant. This budget paid for my studio, flights, videographers, staff, myself.
I only made around $100,000 Canadian for my personal salary, so if you want to do a separate panel on the wage gap in alleged foreign influence campaigns, we can certainly do that.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
What sort of due diligence did you perform before you began working with Tenet Media? Did you ever question where this kind of money was coming from? Did you not find it at all suspicious?
As an Individual
Once again, given the budget I was given and the offer I was given from two people who have worked in media and were employed by the Blaze—
November 21st, 2024 / 4:30 p.m.
Conservative
As an Individual
—Lauren Chen, it was not suspicious that this would be a start-up company whatsoever.
Once again, I was running a severely underfunded operation. In fact, at multiple points, I found it difficult to continue to make multiple documentaries each month. To afford that, I needed more staff on board, and so I would apply for more funds and was told that the company simply didn't have them available given it was a small start-up.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
Do you feel that you were taken advantage of in this situation? Do you feel you were deceived by Lauren Chen and Liam Donovan?
As an Individual
I wasn't given the information in the indictment, so if it's all true, then yes.
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
That seems clear.
With that, Chair, how much time do I have left?
Conservative
Dane Lloyd Conservative Sturgeon River—Parkland, AB
You actually answered a lot of my questions on this already, Ms. Southern, so I'll have to regroup and pass it on to the next speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqwinder Gaheer
Thank you, Mr. Lloyd.
The next speaker is Mr. Erskine-Smith for six minutes.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Thanks very much, Chair.
I want to get back to the amount that you were compensated. You said you made $100,000 personal that you were able to take home with you, but what was the total amount before you paid out different contracts?
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
It was two hundred and something thousand U.S.?
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay, and how many videos did you create for Tenet Media?
As an Individual
It must have been upwards of 80. I don't know; I couldn't tell you the exact number, but it was quite a few. I had three—