Liberal, NDP, and Bloc MPs Vote to Suspend ArriveCan Hearings Over ‘Scary’ CBSA Report

Liberal MP Majid Jowhari rises to vote during a marathon voting session in the House of Commons Thursday, March 21, 2019 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

Liberal, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois MPs suspended committee hearings on the ArriveCan application on Feb. 7, arguing that after having read a confidential report by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) on the app, further hearings could put at risk current CBSA and RCMP investigations into the scandal.

“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 hearings have so far revealed several instances of misconduct around the app’s development. In addition, a Jan. 29 report by the federal procurement ombudsman found that 76 percent of contractors hired to work on ArriveCan “did no work” on the app, and that there were missing files with many resources involved in its development.

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.

Mr. Brock read out a portion of the report, which said the CBSA had found employee misconduct so serious that it required the RCMP to investigate criminal charges of fraud and bribery. OGGO then voted that the report would be distributed to other MPs on the committee, but not to the public.

‘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.

“Because we are interfering, in the wrong way, in this investigation that’s being done,” he said.

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.

“I have chased this particular scandal over the last several months in a number of committees. And I’ve been faced with tactics similar to what we heard today; with motions to adjourn to silence me. I won’t be silenced,” he said.

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.