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.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
You mentioned that you did several interviews there. Were you paid for those interviews?
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
It has come up who you interviewed while you were there, and that was Aleksandr Dugin, who has been referred to as “Putin's brain”. Actually, how did you get an interview with him?
As an Individual
I watched an episode of The Agenda with Steve Paikin, where he interviewed Aleksandr Dugin, and then at an either earlier or later date, he also interviewed a translator of Dugin's, who was a University of Toronto Ph.D. student. I contacted one of his translators and got his email, and said, “Mr. Dugin, could I conduct an interview with you?” In a very brief response, he just said yes.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
I just want to read what Dugin said in 2014, that Russia should, “kill, kill, kill” Ukrainians. He has previously been involved with Pamyat, which has been described as the most significant anti-Semitic organization since perestroika. He has expressed his admiration for the SS, adopting the alter ego Hans Sievers, named after the war criminal who was general secretary of the Nazi research institute that Heinrich Himmler established.
I'm just curious. I know you've mentioned Steve Paikin a number of times. I had limited time to look here. It's slightly different from the interview you did. I'll just be honest. Why would you want to platform someone like that?
As an Individual
It was for the exact same reasons that Steve Paikin did and TVO did, because he is an interesting geopolitical figure. I was more right than I bargained for initially in how interesting he would get. When I watched the TVO interview and when I watched the work of Michael Millerman, one of his translators, they figured these ideas of—
Liberal
As an Individual
No. I don't think we should “kill, kill, kill” the Ukrainians. On the contrary, I think we should be trying to not kill anybody. I'm not a big fan of killing people, Ukrainian or otherwise.
Liberal
As an Individual
No, once again.
You're interviewing me right now. Do you agree with all of my opinions?
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
No. I actually find some of them quite offensive.
I'm curious what a “Canadian language” is. Is that Ojibwa and Cree?
As an Individual
Typically, in Canada, our national languages are English and French. I figured this was common knowledge here, but....
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Okay.
You know, it's funny. I was just in the Baltic countries and met with the NATO strategic communications centre of excellence, and a lot of what you put out aligns perfectly with the types of Russian misinformation I heard about, particularly around immigration. Anyway, that's just a comment.
You keep referring to Steve Paikin and the fact that he did an interview with someone.
You went to Russia. If I'm not mistaken, you were barred from going to the U.K. Is that correct?
As an Individual
That was because I tried to set up a pride parade in Luton, and the Islamic population there typically is not a big fan of that. I was told it was stirring up hatred.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
So you went to Russia to stir up hatred against Jews?
As an Individual
I'm so sorry—what are you referring to?
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
You deliberately made a trip to Russia to interview someone who is one of the most anti-Semitic people around. Was it just to be controversial?
Do you find that funny?
As an Individual
I do find it funny that you are accusing me of taking a trip to Russia to stir up hatred against Jews, when I don't think Jews came up once during my interview with Aleksandr Dugin. I don't know where you're getting that from.
Once again, Steve Paikin conducted an interview with him, so I guess you would have to make the same anti-Semitic accusations against TVO.
Liberal
Pam Damoff Liberal Oakville North—Burlington, ON
Ms. Southern, his views are well known and you deliberately went there, so you're basically trying to create chaos. The funny thing is that's what they say Russia does: It tries to create chaos in society. It sounds like your goal is to try to create chaos, and I don't get the sense that you have a lot of respect for western liberal democracy as it is.
Anyway, that's my time, Chair.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Iqwinder Gaheer
Thank you, Ms. Damoff.
Ms. Michaud, you have two and a half minutes.
Bloc
Kristina Michaud Bloc Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Ms. Southern, I like to go back to the money aspect that was addressed a little earlier.
Earlier you said that Tenet Media gave you a budget of $275,000 U.S. and that you managed to draw a salary of $100,000 Canadian.
Is that correct?
Bloc
Kristina Michaud Bloc Avignon—La Mitis—Matane—Matapédia, QC
Were you asked to reimburse that money at any time? When Tenet Media shut down as a result of the allegations, did the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or the RCMP, for example, come knocking at your door? Did one of those security agencies pay you a visit following the allegations?