Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, with respect to both the commissioner of Canada elections, Ms. Simard, and the Chief Electoral Officer, there were no complaints registered with the commissioner or the Chief Electoral Officer for us to follow up on with the 2019 and 2021 elections. For that reason, we did not meet with them, but we expect we will in our subsequent work.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, we expect that we will meet with those two officials in subsequent review. What I was saying is that our understanding was that there were no complaints directed to them that required action with regard to the 2019 and 2021 elections.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, with respect to Ms. Block, I reached out to her because she's an eminent counsel and highly qualified. I'd worked with her in another difficult situation—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The answer is that I wasn't aware of her donation history, and it wouldn't have occurred to me to inquire into that, because her reputation and integrity are impeccable and continue to be so, in my view.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  In about 2007-08, Prime Minister Harper invited me to review allegations of the involvement of Mr. Karlheinz Schreiber with former prime minister Mulroney, who had stepped down from office, and to strike the terms of reference for an inquiry into that particular matter. Ms. Block reached out to assist as senior counsel.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  When I asked her to assist in that respect, she was referred to me as the pre-eminent counsel in the country to do that kind of work, and that proved to be the case.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  We set that out on page 21. We just finish by saying: NSIA Thomas and the Prime Minister's Chief of Staff both testified to PROC that there was no evidence of money flowing to federal candidates. I asked the Prime Minister and other Ministers if they or their staff knew anything about money being transferred to federal candidates in the 2019 Election.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That was based on both open and classified information, first of all. What we say a little bit earlier on page 22 is this: The PRC has leveraged proxy agents and has tried to influence numerous Liberal and Conservative candidates in subtle ways. There is no basis to conclude that the 11 candidates were or are working in concert (i.e., as a “network”) or understood the proxies' intentions.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, the question was what Mr. Blair received. Our understanding, from Mr. Blair's testimony to us, is that he did not receive the memo indicating that that warning was there.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  My understanding is that it had his name or office on it but he did not receive it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, the understanding I have is that, very clearly, email or whatever, he did not receive it. That was the testimony he gave to us. That, for us, seemed to be a very substantial flaw in how information is crystallized and finds its way into the hands of recipients who have the accountability to act on it.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Again, I'm trying to be careful in dealing with what's open information and what's classified information. With respect to the nomination meeting, there clearly were strange practices, unusual practices, going on. We did not conclude from that that it was directly laid in the hands of the People's Republic of China.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think we interviewed the people who had information about this particular matter. Mr. Dong at that time, I think, was proceeding with his own lawsuit. We felt that this was something he should get on with.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Madam Chair, with respect to the nomination processes, that is a very difficult area, because they're governed by the rules of the party. It's been a very difficult area to regulate, to oversee, and I think one looks to the parties to develop appropriate rules. I think CSIS has been conscious of the fact that nomination events have followed procedures that would not be the most attractive, but to date, I don't think CSIS has cast its attention into that area in great depth.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The appearance of a conflict of interest would be a reasonable person in possession of all the true facts concluding that a person would not be able to provide unbiased judgment on a particular matter. The key issues would be, one, a reasonable person, and two, all the true facts being in front of that person.