“We’re doing a disservice to justice. And I’m being very, very serious about this. I’m not a lawyer, okay, but what I read; it’s scary,” Liberal MP Majid Jowhari said about a preliminary statement of facts MPs on the committee obtained from the CBSA.
To the dismay of Tory MPs on the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) the three parties voted to pause questioning of Michel Lafleur, CBSA’s executive director of professional integrity, who was questioned by the committee on Feb. 6. They also voted in favour of the committee focusing on other topics of interest at subsequent meetings.
OGGO has spent several months investigating the ArriveCan app, which was used to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers crossing the Canada-U.S. Border. At issue is how the application ended up costing a total of $54 million and whether the procurement process and development of the app were appropriate.
The CBSA was also asked in late 2022 to review allegations from Montreal software company Botler AI, who previously told OGGO they witnessed corruption and extortion at the CBSA. When Mr. Lafleur appeared before OGGO on Feb. 6, Conservative MP Larry Brock revealed that he had obtained a copy of his report on the allegations.
‘I Won’t Be Silenced’
Mr. Jowhari said that by focusing solely on ArriveCan, OGGO had been forced to pause several other studies such as of Canada’s shipbuilding strategy and Canada Post’s operations.“While we have agreed to pause 10 studies, this committee hasn’t done anything, hasn’t delivered one iota of output for the last four months,” he said.
The Liberal MP said his party did not want to “block” the committee’s study into ArriveCan, but was proposing pausing it until the RCMP and Auditor General’s reports into the subject had been released.
NDP MP Taylor Bachrach also supported suspending committee hearings until the two investigations have been completed, and said he was disturbed by Mr. Lafleur’s report on ArriveCan.
“I don’t think that I would be compromising the investigation to say that what I read, I found deeply troubling. And I think most Canadians, if they read the statement of fact, would be deeply troubled by what seems to have gone on,” he said.
Mr. Bachrach also cited concerns that if the committee continued questioning Mr. Lafleur, they may compromise the investigation.Mr. Brock accused the Liberals of doing “everything in their power” to shut down OGGO’s investigation into ArriveCan.
Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said he was “flabbergasted” by the Liberals’ call to suspend the study.
“When the Liberals think nothing’s going on, when they say ’there’s nothing to see here,' Mr. Speaker, that tells Conservatives that we need to dig even deeper,” he said.
