Finance committee  We can answer that question decisively, again. Vivian Krause and others have made.... We have faced Charity Intelligence, which is four people making inaccurate statements. We have faced Jesse Brown and a blogger, who were involved in a legal action, to try to correct the record, and Justice Goudge, in multiple cases, has cited the inaccurate statements he's made.

Finance committee  Sir, when you're 12 and 17 years old and start a children's charity, and continue in that role for 25 years, that's the answer to your question. This is why we do what we do. It is something we care about deeply. We have an extraordinary team. They work very hard. It is incredibly unfortunate that in the past 25 days, we have seen the integrity of an organization, the service by thousands of teachers across this country and the work of students who have volunteered called into question for purposes that have been supporting other people's agenda, when the facts are very clear.

Finance committee  To answer your question, sir, this was established through the advice of our professional advisers. This was something that was previously on the shelf. As Ms. Douglas mentioned, it was created originally for an idea—never executed—so it was on the shelf. It was designed for legal liability.

Finance committee  Let me clarify, sir. Those funds—again, widely misrepresented, sadly, by a number of individuals—were not administration costs that we received a blank cheque on, or any form.... These were funds that could be accessed only for eligible expenses as they occurred.

Finance committee  Sir, it's inaccurate statements like this that are truly killing a Canadian charity, and I don't mean this to be dramatic in my statement. WE Charity is being raked over the coals by inaccurate statements like yours. No companies were party to this contract; only registered charities were party to the contract.

Finance committee  Sir, Justice Goudge has done a review. It's actually available on our website. We'll happily send it to you. He took over our T4 forms because we wanted to be able to address this properly. We will send his review to you. It has our personal financial data in it. I'm not sure whether it goes to you and then goes to the world, but so be it, at this point, frankly.

Finance committee  Yes. We would do this in the regular course of business. We didn't engage frequently with the federal government, but in conversations, whether it be.... We were honoured. These are great men, people like Tony Clement and Minister Flaherty, great men.

Finance committee  I remember sitting down with Minister Moore, talking about [Inaudible—Editor]. He gave us a lecture in his office on the topic. We would—

Finance committee  We would, sir. We would submit ideas for how we could work with government. Let me clarify, sir, to everyone: We run a charity. When I say “we”, we're founders of the charity; we now have an executive director who runs it. Fundamentally, we do this in a manner to work in partnership to fulfill social objectives with government.

Finance committee  He is an environmentalist, sir, a documentary filmmaker, and he was a well-known individual in his own right when he spoke. In those particular ones, we brought him in partially because Margaret—Madame Trudeau—was not able to...in that case. We were seeking to fill an urgent need, so we worked with him on that particular year.

Finance committee  We loved having David Suzuki on stage. We loved having people from all walks of life on stage. These are good people. Sir, I understand the point that people are trying to make here, but universities have lecture series and they pay people. Gala dinners take place. We did this in the regular course of business.

Finance committee  Sir, we have answered this question multiple times, but allow me to frame it this way. Any doctor's office in Canada, any small business in this country, understands the reality of liability. This is something that Canadians understand. When we were asked, out of service to Canada....

Finance committee  We submitted it.... It was dated, as you'll note, on the 21st.

Finance committee  Sir, I understand what you're seeking to get at here. The simple matter of this, sir, is that we have vast.... I'm happy to walk you through the document, and anyone on the committee. You'll see how the document is structured: bios on our key leaders, which is pretty quick to put together; an overview of our previous national service programs, and we're able to cut and paste those; our best practices—

Finance committee  A handful of hours, sir. It would have been a pretty quick turnaround because—