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.
As an Individual
Sorry. Let me give you more specifics. I was contracted to do three videos a week and two mini-documentaries a month.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Okay.
You said they had only 300,000 subscribers. Is that right?
As an Individual
Yes, but what's more interesting to me is that only, I believe, a few months before the indictment dropped, they had only around 100,000 subscribers. In fact, I had a documentary with the company that was at around 10,000 views for a long time. Mere days before the indictment dropped, it was at millions.
I know there were ad campaigns done to promote the videos, but I think the numbers have been massively inflated by those who have an interest in exaggerating foreign interference.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
What was your idea of the business model here? I mean, they're paying you $275,000 U.S. I know that you're taking home $100,000 after that, but there are others with even more followers and presumably are going to get paid more as a result, in their stable of influencers. How are they making money off this, in your view?
As an Individual
I was the top contributor, so I was getting some of the top view counts at the site. I was hustling very hard to make sure my videos did well, trying to grow the company. I did not know the salaries of my peers. I was under the assumption that they were getting paid the same, if not less, because I was doing a large amount of videos.
It made sense, certainly, that a start-up from someone at a tech company could give the amount of money necessary. Certainly, I was being asked to start doing advertisements at Tenet. I assumed that the start-up money must have been drying up and they needed to integrate ads into this. It certainly made sense from all the information that I was provided.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Who was your main point of contact? Was Lauren Chen your main point of contact at Tenet?
As an Individual
No. It was typically Liam, but really, I was just left alone as long as I was fulfilling my contract. I wasn't speaking to them that often.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
When someone comes to you and says they want you to join them and they make a pitch, you're not just going to join anything. Was it Liam who made the pitch and sold you on it?
As an Individual
Lauren made the pitch, and then Liam sent the contracts over.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Lauren made the pitch. What was your relationship with Lauren like before she made the pitch to you?
As an Individual
It was cordial. They're very friendly people. We had met in person before. I'd had 10 years of knowing her in the same industry as me. She's always made pretty decent videos on YouTube and for the Blaze and various other companies.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
She's in your world. You've known her for 10 years.
You've read the indictment, I assume.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Here she and Liam [Technical difficulty—Editor] talking about the Russians and that they are aware of where this money is coming from. It must have sent chills down your spine that you'd been working for Russian money.
As an Individual
We still.... If I know anything about my time spent in media and people speculating about both the work I've done and my personal life and all these things, it's that, unless I was there, I don't know anything. I don't know what happened.
I'm not going to make comments about Liam or Lauren, because I do not know the inside out of what went on there, other than the comments in the indictment.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
Right. So you read the indictment and you sort of shrugged, “Well, I wasn't there; I don't know that this is true, so it's of no concern.”
As an Individual
I certainly didn't shrug. I'm not looking to work for any.... I'm not looking to be an asset of any government—foreign or domestic, for that matter—so no, I was not happy with the idea that I would be working for—
Liberal
As an Individual
I was certainly happy with the integrity of my work, all of which was done of my own volition and with all of my own opinions. If there are any concerns by this committee about anything I may have published that was not factual, I'd be happy to correct that, but....
November 21st, 2024 / 4:35 p.m.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
I don't know. In your opening you talked about people getting frustrated with this federal government, but one of your major examples was people who “lost their business during lockdown”. Sure, people were obviously very frustrated if they lost business during lockdown, but you must know, having been very vocal on this, that it was the provincial governments who implemented the lockdowns.
You are aware of that, right?
As an Individual
Sure, but there were plenty of acts by the federal government to shut down legitimate protests, shut down people's bank accounts—
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
No, no, no. Sorry. You said they “lost their business during lockdown”. You would know, I assume, that this would be a provincial matter.
As an Individual
I think you're getting into semantics here. There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about freedom in Canada.
Liberal
Nathaniel Erskine-Smith Liberal Beaches—East York, ON
No, no, no. The differences between provincial and federal governments are certainly not semantic differences.
You also said in your opening that your views “are rapidly becoming the views of the majority of this nation”. Do you think the great replacement theory is going to become the view of the majority of this nation any time soon?
As an Individual
It depends on what you mean by “the great replacement theory”. What do you mean?