Senator Loffreda: Thank you for your response. We all agree that illegal funds must not support illegal activities.

My supplementary question was on the exit strategy which has been discussed in detail. Senator Gold, any further insights on new developments in the future on the exit strategy would obviously be welcome. I also very much welcome the following parliamentary review and inquiry on the matter. Thank you.

Senator Gold: Thank you for your question. I have nothing new to report. The ongoing conversations between government, law enforcement and the like continue. There remains an ongoing concern that we are not out of the woods yet, that there are stated plans still afoot to reoccupy and continue the illegal activities. Whether they will be realized or not, let’s hope not.

At such time as the government reaches the conclusion that the emergency is past, of course, we will be the first to know or amongst the first to know. That’s all I really am able to say at this juncture.

Senator Plett: That’s not the question. When did it become illegal? That’s the question.

Senator Gold: Strictly speaking, some of the activities became illegal upon the proclamation of the state of emergency. It was only illegal to continue to stay in areas like the Parliamentary Precinct when the tools were finally made available to the authorities to protect our Parliamentary Precinct, and the neighbourhoods, may I add, where people live and work. So that is the narrow legal question.

The broader question, which I was trying to answer, was that the circumstances arose and became quite clear for some time before the invocation that whatever might have started out as a peaceful protest degenerated, morphed into something that was far from a peaceful protest and, as I outlined in my speech and in the declaration, is an intolerable situation in any free and democratic society.

If I may briefly address, respectfully, some of the other things that you said, I never said 200 individuals were insignificant. What I was —