Procedure and House Affairs committee  When I say I'm not funded, I say that the work I have done I have never been paid to do. I did it starting in about 2006 and—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Please let me finish my sentence, sir. I didn't do any speaking engagements until six years later, so by logic, my work was not funded by industry, seeing that most of it took place before I ever did any sort of speaking.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Is it possible?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Well, if we do the math, the answer is clearly yes, right? I don't mean for a moment to take away from the efforts of the political party that won, but if you do the math.... Leadnow, for example, takes credit for defeating 26 Conservative incumbents. Well, of course they didn't

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I'll give you an example. This organization, Leadnow, claims that it is the brainchild of two university students and a throughly Canadian youth-led movement, but that is not the whole story. The truth is that their original business plan, which I stumbled across on the Interne

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I think the important point or perhaps one of the most important points I could leave with you is that this wasn't done for no reason. This wasn't done because of how Canada has treated aboriginal people or because of how we've treated immigrants. This was done because of oil. T

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's called the Citizen Engagement Laboratory, and it has a program called the Online Progressive Engagement Network.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  They have a program called strategic incubation. The executive director is an individual named Ben Brandzel. He came to Canada and worked with Leadnow here to help them with the launch. His organization, OPEN, provides a number of types of assistance. I can give you a couple of e

Procedure and House Affairs committee  There are a couple things about OPEN. This is the American organization that appears to me to be the parent organization of Leadnow. They say they work seamlessly across borders. They say in writing that they keep a low profile because of the sensitive political implications of t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  I would argue that it's a pretty blurry line between Leadnow and OPEN, because they work seamlessly across borders and because of the type of activity that the American organization provides. It's everything from ghostwriting and video production to coaching, strategic support, t

Procedure and House Affairs committee  The point I'm trying to make is that they're working behind the scenes—

Procedure and House Affairs committee  That's a very difficult question, but I'll tell you the way I see it. As I mentioned, it's in proposed paragraph 282.4(1)(b). That paragraph defines a “foreign entity”. It says that you're not allowed to influence elections if you are “a corporation or entity incorporated, forme

Procedure and House Affairs committee  It's because of the way that is written that pretty much any organization can be exempt.

Procedure and House Affairs committee  Could you remind me of the three categories?

Procedure and House Affairs committee  This is the thing. The way that foreign influence is occurring is by having most of its impact outside of the election period. By the time the writ is dropped, they have accomplished so much.