Tory MP Decries Witness ‘Cover-Up’ in ArriveCAN Investigation After Consultant Accused of Lying

A smartphone set to the opening screen of the ArriveCan app is seen in a file photo. (The Canadian Press/Giordano Ciampini)

As the Government Operations Committee continues its investigation into the ArriveCAN app, a consultant was grilled on whether he previously lied about having contacts with the deputy prime minister’s office, leading one Conservative MP to say he was concerned by the repeated lack of honesty from public servants testifying before the committee.

“What I’m most struck by is the cover-up that we are seeing in the context of these hearings. It should be fairly easy for both public servants and consultants to appear on the committee and simply tell us the truth,” said Conservative MP Garnett Genuis during a Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates (OGGO) meeting with witness Vaughn Brennan on Jan. 17.

The committee is currently investigating how the companies GC Strategies, Dalian, and Coradix received millions in taxpayer dollars to develop the ArriveCAN app, which was used by Ottawa to track the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers entering Canada. Critics have claimed the app could have been developed for a fraction of its $54 million cost.

The co-founders of Quebec-based Botler AI, which was acting as a subcontractor for the Canada Border Service Agency (CBSA), previously testified before the committee on Oct. 26, 2023, that they were concerned about the development of ArriveCAN after witnessing subcontracting deals that lacked transparency about where federal dollars went. Co-founders Ritika Dutt and Amir Morv worked alongside the company GC Strategies, which was hired by the government to build ArriveCAN but subcontracted the work to six other companies.

According to The Globe and Mail, GC Strategies Managing Partner Kristian Firth was attempting to expand the adoption of Botler AI’s software across the federal government in 2019 and 2020. He introduced Mr. Morv and Ms. Dutt to Mr. Brennan, who recommended that Ms. Dutt send an e-mail to Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland.

Mr. Brennan helped draft a letter to Ms. Freeland’s chief of staff regarding the software, which was sent out by Ms. Dutt on Jan. 27, 2021. The next day, Mr. Brennan sent a text message to Ms. Dutt claiming that the federal government was having “internal negotiations” on how best to utilize Botler AI’s software. In a later text message, he said Ms. Freeland’s office had also reached out to the CBSA and the Department of Justice.

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But when pressed by The Globe and Mail in 2023, Mr. Brennan said he had “fibbed” in an effort to pressure Ms. Dutt to take more action on the file, adding that he “did not and do not have any contacts within the Liberal government nor in the [Privy Council Office].

When questioned by Conservative MP Larry Brock on Jan. 17, Mr. Brennan denied he had lied to Ms. Dutt, claiming their “marketing discussions were based on hypothetical scenarios.”

In response to a question by Conservative MP Stephanie Kusie on what connections he had with the Liberal government, Mr. Brennan said he had none and that he never connected with Ms. Freeland’s office.

Allegations of Several Witnesses Lying Before OGGO

Mr. Genuis cast doubt on Mr. Brennan’s claim that the text message he sent in regards to his connections in government was “hypothetical,” saying it was “stating direct knowledge of what happens inside government.” He said this raised questions as to why there had been an “ongoing, multi-dimensional cover-up from both public servants and from consultants” when it came to the ArriveCAN app.

Several witnesses before OGGO have been accused by MPs of lying about aspects of ArriveCAN’s development. In November 2023 testimony before OGGO, Mr. Firth admitted to inflating the work experience of Mr. Morv and Ms. Dutt to fit an “evaluation matrix” of scores needed to be compliant in a certain category of government contracts, but that he had simply submitted the wrong resume versions to the government.

Several MPs expressed disbelief at Mr. Firth’s explanation, with Mr. Genuis describing Mr. Firth as “without a doubt, the least believable witness I have ever had appear before a parliamentary committee,“ and Mr. Brock saying, ”No one believes you in this room.” Mr. Firth was also accused of lying when telling OGGO that he didn’t know whether a senior CBSA official had a “cottage,” and then later said he knew he owned a “chalet.”

In a later OGGO meeting, former CBSA employee Cameron MacDonald accused the agency’s former vice-president Minh Doan, now the chief technology officer for the government of Canada, of lying when he told the committee in October he didn’t know how GC Strategies was selected to work on ArriveCan. Mr. Doan had told the committee he did not choose GC Strategies, but decided on the “strategic direction” best suited to quickly develop the app.

At the Jan. 17 OGGO meeting, Mr. Genuis brought up how Mr. MacDonald and another former CBSA employee, Antonio Utano, had been recently suspended from their positions without pay over the ArriveCAN allegations, and said that the pair had been “a little more forthright” when testifying in front of the committee.

“It may elucidate why there has been a reluctance for people to come forward, but it also raises the question of what’s behind all this. What is being covered up?” he asked.

Mr. Genuis suggested that Mr. Brennan did have a contact inside Ms. Freeland’s office and had not lied to Ms. Dutt through the text message, but “for whatever reason, he is embarrassed about and reluctant to acknowledge that he had an intimate knowledge of the workings of the Deputy Prime Minister’s Office.”

“Needless to say, this whole ArriveCAN affair stinks. It demonstrates the broken procurement system that exists under this government,” Mr. Genuis said. “But it makes me extremely curious, and I think will make the public extremely curious, what is being covered up?”

On Jan. 18, MPs on OGGO will once again hear from current CBSA president Erin O’Gorman and former CBSA president John Ossowski.

Ms. Freeland’s office did not immediately respond to The Epoch Times’ request for comment.