Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I am telling the truth in connection with my relationship with Prime Minister Trudeau, which goes back to when our children were teenagers. During the course of almost 40 years, we had no meetings, no dinners at one another's homes, no particular contact. I was a friend of the father, etc., but that was the extent of the contacts.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I have had no meeting with him since that time—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I was not aware of that statement in connection with Mr. Trudeau. My meeting with him occurred when he was 10 or 11 years old, skiing with my children four or five times—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, the connection I had with Mr. Trudeau—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, I was not familiar with the statement that has just been made. I was friends with the father of Mr. Trudeau, through his life in politics. We tried to engage him with the Université de Montréal to be a professor on his return. My last particular meeting with the current Prime Minister—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the members of the committee for having me today to speak on this important issue and the work I am conducting. On March 15 of this year, I was appointed by the government as the independent special rapporteur on foreign interference, with a broad mandate to assess the extent of foreign interference and make recommendations on how to better protect our democracy.