Trudeau’s COVID Corruption, Cronyism, and Coverups
Last Wednesday marked a historic event in Canada’s Parliament. For only the second time in our nation’s history, a private citizen was called before the bar of the House of Commons to be questioned and officially admonished by Parliament.
Kristian Firth, Co-founder of consulting firm GC Strategies, was one of the main players in the development of the disastrous Arrive Can App.
The ArriveCan app was designed as a contact tracing tool in the early days of COVID-19. It quickly became a symbol of this government’s failure, overreach, and corruption.
The RCMP have opened criminal investigations (13 at last count) into the how the government contracts for the ArriveCan app were awarded—including into Firth and his company. There are allegations of identity theft, fraudulent forged resumes, contractual theft, fraudulent billing, price fixing, and collusion—all with senior bureaucrats in the Trudeau Government.
ArriveCan could have been created at the price tag of $80,000. The Trudeau Government spent just under $60 million—750 times the original budget. That’s based on the available records. The cost could be higher still as Auditor General Karen Hogan noted in her scathing report, the final cost would be impossible to determine due to poor, often negligent, record keeping.
The Trudeau Government are alleged to have rigged the ArriveCan contract so it would end up with a well-connected two-person IT consulting firm, GC Strategies. The Trudeau Government even let GC Strategies create the requirements for the contract to ensure no one else could get it.
Firth and his partner, Darren Anthony, did no actual work on the app, yet they received over $19 million of taxpayer money. Investigations have since revealed 76% of ArriveCan contractors did zero work on the project despite getting paid millions.
(GC Strategies has been awarded $60 million in government contracts during Trudeau’s time in office, including receiving contracts since the ArriveCan app fiasco came to light.)
Firth was previously censured by the Commons Government Operations Committee. The committee subpoenaed Firth after he refused two previous summonses to testify. He then refused to answer questions or provide documents.
Firth has denied and continues to deny any wrongdoing and stated that he was “not ashamed” for his role in the corruption scandal. He has also steadfastly refused to answer the most pressing question of all: Who in the Liberal Government is he covering up for?
As my Conservative colleague MP Larry Brock asked him:“Does Mr. Firth think the Prime Minister or Liberal cabinet ministers should be at the bar answering questions today instead of himself, or is he willing to go to jail for them?”
Someone in the Trudeau Government must take responsibility and be held accountable.
ArriveCan launched April 29th, 2020. It was developed and implemented by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA). That should put former Public Safety Minister and current Defence Minister Bill Blair in the hotseat.
It is worth noting that of the four times in our nation’s history a person has been called to the bar in Canada, two have taken place under this Prime Minister.
In 2021, Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) head Iain Stewart was reprimanded by the House for his refusal to hand over documents related to the actions of Chinese military scientists in Winnipeg’s high security National Microbiology Lab. Justin Trudeau went so far as to sue Parliament to keep these documents hidden—not as it turned out on national security grounds but on the grounds they showed his government to be embarrassingly incompetent at best, or, at worst, complicit in covering up for communist China.
While the activities of these Chinese spies took place under former Minister Ralph Goodale, the investigation—or better put, the coverup—also took place under Bill Blair.
There are also ties to other high profile Liberal staffers in the Prime Minister’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s offices.
Disgracefully, as Mr. Firth’s questioning was about to begin, the Liberal House Leader tried to get him off with claims he was unwell due to mental strain and thus should not be questioned. This clumsy attempt at political self-preservation was met with a collective “get real” from the Opposition and, I would imagine, any Canadian who had tuned in to watch.
Despite Parliament passing a motion, the Liberal Government has made no effort to re-coup the millions in taxpayer funds from the fraudsters. Firth and many other Liberal insiders like him got rich off the backs of suffering Canadians during COVID-19 and they will keep their money—your money—as long as this corrupt government has something to hide.
ArriveCan is just the latest chapter in the seemingly endless saga of cronyism, corruption, and coverups under this Prime Minister.
Justin Trudeau is not worth the cost and not worth the corruption.
Canadians deserve answers and Conservatives will continue our fight to get to the truth.
Only Conservatives can and will restore ethics, accountability, and trust to Canada’s government.
