Two Border Services Agency (BSA) executives suspended without pay for their involvement in the ArriveCan scandal are attempting to squash the matter in court. Federal records obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter show the two execs, Cameron MacDonald and Antonio Utano, claim no criminal wrongdoing and accuse the investigator’s 360-page 2023 Preliminary Statement Of Facts report that led to their suspensions to be “scandalous.” “The applicants were denied procedural fairness during the investigation by being denied the details of the complaint which triggered the investigation and by being excluded from the investigation,” their lawyer wrote in court documents. “The allegations set out therein are spurious, scandalous and clearly designed to discredit the applicants with unsubstantiated and untested accusations of such magnitude and severity any reader could only be left to draw the conclusion of malfeasance and potential criminal activity,” the letter states. Though the BSA has not disclosed the Statement of Facts report, excerpts were read for the record during a February 5 Government Operations Committee hearing by Conservative MP Larry Brock. It alleged bribes were paid in the development of the $59.5 million ArriveCan program.“I have the information right before me,” Brock said at the time. “It is very clear.” The Preliminary Statement Of Facts alleged “serious employee misconduct, so serious that you required the RCMP to investigate at least two criminal charges, fraud and bribery,” he said.“I can read it,” said Brock. Page 10 of the report alleged an ArriveCan contractor “solicited a bribe,” he said.Documents also suggested a third BSA executive attempted to destroy ArriveCan records under investigation, “four years’ worth of highly relevant, sensitive emails between the years of 2018 and 2022,” said Brock. “The approximate amount of those emails is roughly seven gigabytes or 1,700 emails.”The Trudeau Liberals and the president of BSA have not been able to explain the inflated costs of the ArriveCan program or why contractors benefited through insider dealing. “I am deeply concerned,” Auditor General Karen Hogan testified February 12 at the Commons Public Accounts Committee. “We did not find records to accurately show how much was spent on what, who did the work or how and why contracting decisions were made.”“The bookkeeping I looked at is the worst I have seen,” testified Hogan. Auditors put expenses at $59.5 million but “were unable to calculate the exact cost” of the ArriveCan program that cabinet originally claimed cost $19.8 million.“$60 million is an estimate, is that correct?” asked Conservative MP Michael Barrett.“Yes,” replied Hogan.“Did Canadians get value for money?” asked MP Barrett. “We paid too much for this,” replied Hogan.
