MPs Launch Investigation into ArriveCan Following Allegations of Suppression by Border Employee’s Superiors

MPs on the House of Commons public accounts committee are asking the government to release the audio recording of a Canada Border Services Agency meeting, a day after an employee said that her superiors encouraged her to give false testimony to an internal investigator.

Former Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) employee Diane Daly testified Aug. 7 she had been “muzzled” and feared she would lose her job if she told the truth about the ArriveCan app scandal to MPs on the committee.

“She made very serious allegations about intimidation of her as part of an internal government process, a process that clearly is compromised and subject to criticism,” Conservative MP Garnett Genuis said during a committee meeting on Aug. 8.

The MPs are asking several CBSA employees named by Daly to be called before the committee to testify. The MPs’ motion also calls on GC Strategies managing partner and ArriveCan contractor Kristian Firth to provide evidence supporting his claims that he discussed the app’s contracting process with Daly, an assertion she denied on Aug. 7.

Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan, who voted “reluctantly” in favour of the motion, said she was concerned that the release of the audio recording could potentially “sabotage” other investigations into ArriveCan. Both the CBSA and RCMP have said they are conducting their own probes into the app.

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“To our knowledge, no person subject to the [Conflict of Interest Act] or the court was involved in this matter,” he said. “Hence, we have no jurisdiction and I have no comments to make on that.”

Von Finckenstein said his office focuses on elected officials and people who have been appointed by government councils and have senior positions. “In this case, of all the people you mentioned, none of them falls under either category,” he told MPs.

“So there are obviously other institutions to deal with this, primarily the Commissioner of Public Service Integrity, the provisions under the Public Service Employment Act, etc.”