MPs Order Border Services to Disclose Evidence in Alleged Destruction of 1,700 ArriveCan Emails

Conservative MP for Brantford-Brant Larry Brock rises during Question Period, Nov. 23, 2023 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

MPs have voted to order the disclosure of all internal federal investigations into claims that border agency executive Minh Doan destroyed 1,700 emails related to the ArriveCan app.

Tory MP Larry Brock said during a meeting of the government operations committee on March 26 that there were concerns the CBSA’s top officials were “covering up and deliberately trying to hide their actions while scapegoating others.”

The committee vote approved Mr. Brock’s motion that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) disclose “any and all evidence pertaining to deleted or missing CBSA emails attributed to Minh Doan,” by April 19, as first covered by Blacklock’s Reporter.

On Feb. 5, Mr. Brock had read into the committee record a confidential CBSA report suggesting “four years’ worth of highly relevant, sensitive emails” were destroyed, saying the number amounted to “roughly seven gigabytes or 1,700 emails.”

CBSA Official Testifies

Meanwhile, a top border agency official also appeared before the committee on March 26 and named three executives he says were responsible for picking the primary ArriveCan contractor now facing an RCMP investigation, including Mr. Doan, who now serves as Canada’s chief information officer.

Under questioning from MPs, the official said Mr. Doan, who was vice-president of the Information, Science and Technology Branch (ISTB) at the time, was responsible for choosing IT firm GC Strategies to develop the ArriveCan app.

“I can confirm once the staff augmentation model was agreed to, the [ISTB] was responsible for putting in place the resources required,” said Jonathan Moor, vice-president of Canada Border Services Agency’s (CBSA) comptrollership branch.

“You’ve now confirmed, as many people have confirmed, that it was Minh Doan,” responded Conservative MP Larry Brock. “Minh Doan repeatedly lied to this committee, saying he didn’t personally make that decision, his team did. So I’m very glad for your honesty.”

Later in the meeting, under questioning from Liberal MP Charles Sousa, Mr. Moor added that former CBSA employees Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald were signing the majority of contracts at the time of ArriveCan being chosen. He added the ISTB was responsible for “developing the application and implementing the application” within six weeks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ArriveCan app was developed during the pandemic to check the COVID-19 vaccination status of travellers entering Canada. It has since become a political scandal due to its excessive costs and issues with the development and procurement process. The auditor general’s Feb. 12 report found there was a “glaring disregard for basic management and contracting practices” throughout the app’s development.

The report found that with GC Strategies, which received $8.9 million as a general contractor on ArriveCan, the ISTB did not support the company’s selection with a “sound justification.” Additionally, the auditor general was unable to determine which agency official made the final decision to select GC Strategies.

The RCMP has confirmed it is “accessing the available information” around ArriveCan, and will “take appropriate action,” which may include an investigation.

Deleted Emails

During a government operations committee appearance back in November 2023, Mr. Doan said he was not responsible for choosing GC Strategies to work on ArriveCan, but that he “chose a strategic direction that met our urgent needs for speed and agility at the time.”

Mr. MacDonald later testified before the committee that not only was Mr. Doan responsible for choosing GC Strategies, but that he threatened to blame Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano for the decision during a heated phone call. During that phone call, Mr. Doan allegedly said then-Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino was upset with the news reports around ArriveCan’s high costs and “wanted someone’s head on a plate.”

Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano were both suspended from their government positions without pay in January over allegations of misconduct related to the ArriveCan app. The men alleged the allegations were an attempt at “intimidation” to silence their criticism.

When Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano testified before the government operations committee later in February, they also accused Mr. Doan of deleting thousands of ArriveCan-related emails as part of a coverup by CBSA managers. According to an internal complaint filed by a CBSA employee, Mr. Doan allegedly moved data files that led to them being lost.

Mr. Doan has denied that he purposefully deleted emails related to ArriveCan, calling the allegations an attempt by government employees to pin blame on him for their own actions, despite “growing evidence that demonstrates I had no relationship with any of the vendors in question.”