The ArriveCAN saga continues. During a historic appearance in Ottawa on Wednesday, Kristian Firth, one of two partners at GC Strategies, confirmed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) searched his house on Tuesday.
The latter was summoned to the bar of the House of Commons on Wednesday, a first for a private citizen in more than 100 years in Ottawa.
“There was a search warrant on my property to obtain electronic goods,” confirmed Mr. Firth while addressing federal deputies.
The police investigation would concern the Montreal company Botler AI, after allegations of questionable practices and “systemic corruption” in the government apparatus.
After refusing to answer certain questions during his appearance before a parliamentary committee, Kristian Firth was summoned to report in person to federal MPs. This parliamentary procedure has not taken place since 1913.
Mr. Firth notably refused to reveal the identity of the officials with whom he had developed the criteria for one of the contracts for the development of the ArriveCAN application.
Upon arriving in the House, Mr Firth was ordered by Speaker Greg Fergus to answer questions he had previously refused to answer.
Questioned by Conservative MP Michael Barrett, Kristian Firth finally revealed their names.
GC Strategies, the firm that won the initial contract for ArriveCAN, would have pocketed $19.1 million, according to estimates by Auditor General Karen Hogan. Mr. Firth and his associate suggested that it would be more like $11 million.
Testifying before a committee last month, Mr. Firth argued that his company retained a $2.5 million commission for its work, while the rest of the $11 million went to other contractors hired to develop point the application.
The second partner of GC Strategies, Darren Anthony, also kept several pieces of information silent during his appearance before the parliamentary committee last month. He also contradicted the Auditor General’s estimates.
At the start of his appearance, Mr. Firth indicated that he suffered from mental health problems and said that his doctor recommended that he not participate in activities that would increase his stress. The Conservative Party is the only one to have refused to postpone its summons.
A precedent… in 1913
The last citizen called to testify at the bar of the House of Commons was Montrealer RC Miller. In February 1913, this former president of the Diamond Light & Heating Company found himself on the floor of federal parliament, where he was bombarded with questions about a $41,000 bribe — the equivalent of a million dollars in 2024 — which he would have paid to obtain public contracts. “Rarely have we attended a session stranger than the one that happened today in the Commons,” commented Georges Pelletier, the parliamentary correspondent of the Duty of the time.
RC Miller had remained silent while discussing ongoing trials: “I have already declared under oath, right here, at the public expenditure committee, that I have never paid a penny to anyone, senator, deputy or civil servant, neither directly nor indirectly, to obtain my contracts. » This refusal to testify led the Chamber to order the arrest of the businessman, who found himself in the Carleton County Jail in Ottawa.
Pelletier puts into perspective the conditions of detention of Miller, who would be housed in a comfortable “well-heated” dungeon where he “continues to smoke excellent cigars, eats well, digests well and does not at all look like a discarded Daniel. in the lion’s den. The unfortunate man will remain in prison until the end of the parliamentary session, which will lead to the lifting of his sentence at the beginning of June. “Mr. Miller was in every respect a model prisoner, and the authorities treated him like a political prisoner,” reports The duty.
The Montrealer would not return behind bars, despite rumors circulating at the end of 1913. “Mr. Miller would do better to emigrate to South America,” one could read in The duty. He will be even safer there, despite all the revolutions, than among our politicians. »
Under the rules of the House of Commons, the institution has the right to carry out investigations and require the appearance of witnesses.