MPs told that the Federal Chief Technology Officer misled the committee about ArriveCAN

MPs raised allegations that the federal government’s Chief Technology Officer, Minh Doan, had lied to them when testifying that he didn’t know who hired GC Strategies to build the ArriveCAN app. Cameron MacDonald, a former Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) director, stated that Mr. Doan, who at the time was CBSA’s vice president, was the one who made the decision to hire GC Strategies. This contradicts the statements of Mr. Doan and former CBSA president John Ossowski during their appearance before the committee.

Conservative MP Garnett Genuis questioned whether Mr. Doan had deliberately lied to the committee. This came after Mr. MacDonald spoke and contradicted the prior testimony of Mr. Doan and Mr. Ossowski. It was suggested that Mr. Doan made the choice to hire GC Strategies and had reasons for doing so, despite claiming that he didn’t make the decision, nor did he know who made the decision.

Moreover, Mr. MacDonald, who is now an assistant deputy minister at Health Canada, accused Mr. Doan of calling him and threatening to lay blame for the ArriveCAN scandal on him and another former executive director at CBSA, Antonio Utano. In response, Mr. MacDonald provided advice to Mr. Doan’s team so that they could explain why GC Strategies was selected, after reportedly feeling threatened.

The committee has been looking into how companies, including GC Strategies, were awarded contracts after CBSA received allegations related to the ArriveCAN app. Moreover, in the committee meeting, both Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano denied any wrongdoings related to ArriveCAN, and Mr. MacDonald accused Botler AI co-founders of unfairly attacking their reputation.



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