As I already said, ministerial responsibility rests with me; I am not trying to shirk it. I am told that the partisan involvement of this individual was with a provincial party that no longer exists. I do not know this individual on a personal level, nor on a political or partisan level. At any rate, Mr. St-Cyr, among all the appointments to the IRB, only one of the appointees out of 25 has a link with the Conservative Party of Canada. In other words, almost 100 percent of the appointments we made have no link whatsoever to my party, as far as I can see, and 100 percent of the appointees were pre-selected by the IRB.
On March 10th, 2009. See this statement in context.