Canadian Heritage committee  No, on August 19 the contract was suspended with the organization.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  Initially, there were 1,100 applications.

Canadian Heritage committee  It was an open process.

Canadian Heritage committee  Initially, they were not successful in the first review of applications. Then additional funding was received by the program and all of the initial proposals that were submitted were re-reviewed. It was felt on paper that it met the criteria of the anti-racism action program.

Canadian Heritage committee  No, Madam Chair, there is no truth to that claim. The organization was contacted to see if they would be interested in having their project looked at again, because after the initial call was done it was not successful, and then we were looking at projects again. In that case, the outreach was made purely to see if they were still interested in having their application reviewed.

Canadian Heritage committee  I believe we could do so, yes.

Canadian Heritage committee  It was on July 26. That was when the minister's office called to say that there was an issue that required some follow-up with respect to anti-Semitism with one of our projects.

Canadian Heritage committee  On August 2, one of the offensive tweets was sent to the department. We did work to identify Mr. Marouf and the connection with CMAC. We looked at the contract to assess the contract, sought legal advice and then by August 19 suspended the project.

Canadian Heritage committee  During that period, we were keeping the minister's office aware of the work we were doing.

Canadian Heritage committee  Madam Chair, the money has been requested to be paid back. We have hired a third party collection agency. It's been demanded to be paid back. We first started with a collection agency that has been making attempts since December to get the money. We have not yet received the money, so the minister is—

Canadian Heritage committee  No money has yet been received.

Canadian Heritage committee  It was Minister Hussen's office.

Canadian Heritage committee  The processes that were followed were the established processes. An Internet search was done of the organization. Because nothing problematic turned up, they did not go further. That is what has now been adjusted. In the review we have done since, we are now going through and looking at the board of directors, the executive director, and individuals associated with the projects that are listed in the application.