The House of Commons has passed a Conservative-led motion authorizing the arrest of ArriveCan contractors if they fail to appear before a parliamentary committee to testify on the app.
“This is an incredible precedent, but it’s an incredible situation.”
In the House on Feb. 27, Conservative MP Kelly McCauley moved the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates adopt a report that contains the order for executives from GC Strategies to appear at committee. The House was silent when Assistant Deputy Speaker Alexandra Mendes asked if any MPs were opposed, and the motion was adopted.
If Mr. Firth and Mr. Anthony fail to appear, the sergeant-at-arms will be able to authorize their being taken into custody and compelled to testify. The last time such an action was taken was in 2007 when then-House Speaker Peter Milliken issued a subpoena to compel businessman Karlheinz Schreiber to appear before the ethics committee.
Conservative MPs have been increasingly eager to hear from GC Strategies again following the release of the auditor general’s scathing report on ArriveCan, which said contracting and management practices around the app at several government agencies were not followed, and key records were inexplicably missing.
Previously Summoned to Testify
While Mr. Firth has previously spoken before the Government Operations and Estimates committee on two occasions, he and Mr. Anthony have failed to abide by two summonses from the committee to testify again, sent out on Nov. 2, 2023 and Feb. 9, 2024. MPs were told that the men have “serious” mental health challenges, which have prevented them from testifying.During a media scrum on Feb. 27, Minister of Public Services and Procurement Jean-Yves Duclos said GC Strategies was used for ArriveCan because Canada was in an “emergency context” and the government needed to work with pre-qualified companies.
“This was deemed admissible by the public servants from my department because it was an emergency situation. That said, it shouldn’t be a green light for public servants at CBSA to not properly do their work,” he said.
“This is not an excuse; this is an explanation. The relevant departments are responsible for those contracts. So it’s the CBSA and the few public servants we are talking about who didn’t do their job.”
GC Strategies has not returned The Epoch Times’ request for comment.