To clarify, if I may, Mr. Chairman, on what I said in that memo, I said, this is your legal opinion, it's an interesting legal opinion; my view as to the accounting remains and will remain clear. And I restated my position as to the proper accounting for the matters dealt with.
Mr. Pigeon sent me that opinion late in February. Up until that point I'd received copies of the opinion from my staff, but I had not received a copy of the opinion directly from Mr. Pigeon. It was available to us in the meeting that we had in mid-February where we discussed it. Mr. Pigeon subsequently sent it to me at the end of February. I initially reacted quite negatively to him having done that. I felt the need to respond for the record. I drafted the response that Mr. Williams has referred to. I circulated it to selected members of my staff at that time as well as to Madam Cartwright for some comments. I spoke to Madam Cartwright about it. She reminded me, at that point, that the decision had been taken, the window for the supplementary estimates had been closed, I had lost the battle, and there would be no further point in me sending the memo at that point.
The other thing I would point out, Mr. Chairman, is at that point I had already resigned my position from the secretariat. I resigned my position from the secretariat on February 17, which is about a week before I'd formally received the opinion from Mr. Pigeon.
So in the end, I decided not to send it because I was advised not to and because I was concerned it would be viewed as sour grapes on my part.