MPs vote to obtain recording of ‘hostile’ investigative interview as part of ArriveCan study

Members of Parliament studying the ArriveCan controversy voted unanimously Thursday to order the government to hand over a recording of a three-and-a-half hour internal investigation interview that one public servant described this week as a hostile hearing where she felt pressure to provide false evidence.
All parties on the public accounts committee agreed to the Conservative motion one day after hearing from former Canada Border Services Agency official Diane Daly, who told MPs she’s been suspended as a form of retribution for refusing to give false testimony as part of an internal probe into alleged contracting misconduct.
The border agency has provided some documentation to MPs that suggests at least part of the internal investigation is focused on the relationship between two former senior border agency officials – Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano – and Kristian Firth, the managing partner of GCStrategies, the main private contractor on ArriveCan.
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The CBSA has provided MPs with records showing Mr. Firth provided gifts and hospitality to the two men, who held senior IT positions in the department and worked with GCStrategies on ArriveCan and other files.
Ms. Daly, who is no longer at the border agency and is currently suspended from her position at the Public Works department, said she was told by her superior at Public Works “to give false testimony against my former bosses” at the CBSA. Ms. Daly also said her Jan. 15 interview with CBSA investigators was “hostile” and saw her move from a witness to a target in the agency’s investigation.
“I am currently on administrative leave from Public Works. I believe this is because CBSA and Public Works did not get the negative narrative expected about two former bosses at CBSA in the January 15, 2024, security interview,” she told MPs on Wednesday.
Specifically, she said she felt pressure from her superiors at Public Works, Lysane Bolduc and Tom von Schoenberg. Neither Ms. Bolduc nor Mr. von Schoenberg have responded to a request for comment.
Stéfanie Hamel, a spokesperson for Public Services and Procurement Canada, which is also known as Public Works, said in a statement that the department takes all allegations of wrongdoing seriously and investigates them thoroughly.
“The Department is investigating allegations that have come forward from a number of sources, including the Auditor General’s report. With regard to the employee in question, she was placed on paid administrative leave in March, 2024. To preserve the integrity of the investigative process, we cannot comment further,” she said.
Ms. Daly said she has recordings and transcripts that support her allegations. Brief passages of her discussions with management that she read to MPs did not provide clear evidence that she was told to provide false evidence to CBSA investigators.
Ms. Daly was a senior adviser at the agency’s Border Technologies Innovation Directorate during the period that the agency launched and managed the ArriveCan app, an initially mandatory software tool aimed at facilitating cross-border travel during the pandemic as health requirements changed frequently.
The public accounts committee met again Thursday and approved a detailed motion calling for several actions in response to Ms. Daly’s testimony.
The motion calls on the government to hand over the recording of the three and half-hour interview referenced by Ms. Daly. It also calls on several senior officials to appear before the committee to respond to Ms. Daly’s testimony. The list of officials includes Ms. Bolduc, Mr. von Schoenberg as well as the deputy minister of Public Works, Arianne Reza, and CBSA president Erin O’Gorman.
The motion calls on Mr. Firth to provide a written response to Ms. Daly’s comments, given that she said she has “no idea” why Mr. Firth named her as his contact at the border agency with respect to a $25-million contract with his company that raised concerns in Auditor-General Karen Hogan’s February report on ArriveCan.
Finally, the motion calls on the government to provide testimony from officials responsible for a short list of preapproved government technology contractors called the task-based informatics professional services list, or TBIPS.
Ms. Daly described TBIPS as a core problem in the federal procurement system, calling it a “financial nightmare” that does not have enough safeguards to prevent conflicts of interest.
Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan voted for the Conservative motion but expressed concern that ordering the production of a recording connected to an active investigation risks sabotaging the border agency’s work.
“Unfortunately, once again, we have members of Parliament seeking to replicate and possibly compromise the work that is being done by other duly authorized investigators,” she said.
The public accounts committee and the government operations committee, which are both chaired by Conservative MPs and are both investigating ArriveCan, have both requested and obtained extensive documentation related to ArriveCan from federal officials and private contractors. While some of that material has been made public by the committee, most of it has not been released publicly.
In February, MPs on the government operations committee received but did not release an interim report prepared by the CBSA internal investigators. The report was called a preliminary statement of facts.
Liberal MP Majid Jowhari described the contents of the secret report as “scary” and said MPs are “doing a disservice to justice” by continuing to hold hearings that overlap with the work of the internal investigators.
In May, the Federal Court rejected a request by Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano to have the CBSA internal review shelved in favour of a new independent review.
Like Ms. Daly, Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano say their suspensions are a form of retaliation by senior officials.
In his ruling, Federal Court Justice Russel Zinn said the two men have not provided adequate evidence to support their claim that the border agency’s internal investigative process is unfair.
After approving the motion Thursday, the committee heard from Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein.
Mr. von Finckenstein said his office is responsible for elected and appointed public officials and no one in those categories has been accused of wrongdoing related to ArriveCan, to his knowledge. He noted that other watchdogs have said they are investigating ArriveCan allegations that fall under their responsibility, such as the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner.