00:12:11.180so many it's hard to keep track of all these scandals isn't it well here's the new one
00:12:16.000app scam from the epic times and we're going to play you some video
00:12:20.500straight from the committee hearing from yesterday in just a second tech entrepreneurs testify they
00:12:28.260witnessed corruption fraud extortion extortion like the mob yeah just like that during the
00:12:35.640arrive can app development they raised concerns about the development of arrive can after
00:12:40.260You're witnessing shady subcontracting deals that lacked transparency about where, and
00:12:45.460they say federal dollars here, I say our dollars, our tax dollars, where they went.
00:12:52.780So let's get into the story by Matthew Horwood.
00:12:56.220Factions within the Trudeau government were complicit in corruption, extortion, and ghost
00:13:02.840contracting during the development of the ArriveCant app.
00:13:06.940Two tech entrepreneurs testified during a government committee meeting.
00:13:10.260An act of misconduct rarely happens in isolation.
00:13:16.320It's almost always symptomatic of a larger existence and tolerance of misconduct from Amir Morv, who is the co-founder of software company Botler AI.
00:13:26.940This is what he told MPs in his opening remarks a couple of days ago, actually yesterday.
00:13:33.280Individuals engaged in such conduct are also prime targets of exploitation and extortion.
00:13:38.380The Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates, or AGO, Lego my AGO, is examining how GC Strategies, Dalian and Corridix, received millions of taxpayer dollars, $54 million overall, so far that we know of, to develop the ArriveCAN app, which was used by Ottawa to track the COVID-19 vaccination status of travelers coming to Canada.
00:14:05.640The RCMP is also investigating the three companies behind the app,
00:14:09.060which critics have said could have been developed for a fraction of its $54 million cost.
00:14:16.020Quebec-based Butler, which was acting as a subcontractor for the Canada Border Service Agency,
00:14:21.600raised concerns about the development of ArriveCent after witnessing shady subcontracting deals
00:14:26.980that lacked transparency about where federal dollars went.
00:14:30.260According to the Globe and Mail, the CBSA, that's the Canada Border Service Agency, gave the three companies behind the app more than $17 million last year after it had received allegations of contracting misconduct on the Arrive Can app.
00:14:47.400Mr. Morve and Botler, co-founder of Ritika Dutt, sorry, co-founder Ritika Dutt, told the committee private conversations they had with Christian Firth, managing partner of the two-person company GC Strategies, after the CBSA encouraged them to work with him on a pilot project.
00:15:06.480After CBSA Director General Cameron McConnell urged them to work with GC Strategies,
00:15:12.040the pair discovered the contract for their work was being run through another company called Dalian,
00:15:19.280They said there was a lack of transparency about how federal money was being distributed to the companies.
00:15:24.580Mr. Morve told MPs on the committee that vulnerabilities in the federal government's procurement regime
00:15:29.800have been systematically exploited to funnel tax dollars into private entities that
00:15:35.600lie outside of public purview. He said the contractors are openly engaged in various
00:15:43.440criminal activities and openly commit fraud on the government by promising influence and
00:15:49.020requesting material benefit in exchange. Mr. Morve alleged that Mr. Firth, one of two employees
00:15:55.180at GC Strategies, routinely boasted that he and his friends who were senior government officials
00:16:01.020with contracting authorities had dirt on each other, essentially guaranteeing silence through
00:16:07.100mutually assured destruction. He added that contractor misconduct would not be possible
00:16:13.040without backing from factions within the government. He said a part of the Canadian
00:16:17.420government mobilized to bury Butler's reports and protect this corruption after it sent two
00:16:22.240reports to the CBSA. Ms. Dutt told MPs that in December of last year, at the same time CBSA
00:16:30.060President Erin O'Gorman said she was considering sending the reports to the RCMP. Her emails were
00:16:36.200hacked, and every record of an email that Christian Firth sent me was mysteriously deleted.
00:16:44.800We watched and waited patiently for someone to do the right thing and act on our reports, but instead
00:16:50.180we were heartbroken as they lied. They lied to us, they lied to you at OGO,
00:16:55.400they lied to Parliament, and they lied to Canadian taxpayers, she said.
00:17:00.740When Conservative MP Stephanie Cousy asked Mr. Morve to describe what ghost contracting was, he said GC Strategies, which received $11.2 million to develop a Rivecan, could be defined as a ghost contractor.
00:17:15.340Essentially, ghost contracting is when a middleman is added to a government contract without any legal trace.
00:17:21.700That middleman does no actual work, yet makes a significant amount of commission, Mr. Morve said.
00:17:27.220he added that while he had no information on whether the company's coridix or dalian who
00:17:33.540received a combined 4.3 million to develop the app also fit the definition they hired ghost
00:17:38.480contractors to do the work they could have easily directed to work with us but they chose to work
00:17:44.040with a ghost contractor to funnel the funds through this ghost contractor who was gc strategies
00:17:49.680conservative mp garnett genus described the situation as a horrific system of government
00:17:55.080corruption that was much bigger than just arrived can. You're describing a system in
00:18:01.140which government contracts go to preferred contractors. They claim to subcontract to
00:18:05.520others who claim do the work and they provide reports on this. Let's go to the
00:18:13.000of conservative Stephanie Cousy. Here's what she says. This came out yesterday.0.99
00:18:21.160bombshell testimony from butler executives reveal that multiple government departments
00:18:27.020are using ghost contracts to cover up their corrupt criminal activities and even deputy pm
00:18:33.440christia freeland is now connected to this scandal many higher-up government officials
00:18:38.760have been mentioned as well more to come uh this is ratika dutt who was one of the business people
00:18:45.520involved with him on top of that okay so in an effort for us to get to the bottom of this
00:18:51.060We've asked for the documentation, but we have to get to the who.
00:18:57.980Who else might possibly be behind this within the government?
00:19:01.620So which government officials did you talk to in pursuit of the CBSA contract, just for the pilot itself?
00:19:08.660So we were informed by the CBSA that they intended to take this enterprise throughout the government.
00:19:13.860And in support of that, GC Strategies took us to meetings with various government departments and officials.
00:19:19.080So I believe you're asking for names. There was Philippe Johnston at Transport Canada. There was Mark Briard and Paul Gerard that were at Treasury Board of Canada. There was an individual, I believe his name was Daniel Gaudreau at the CRA at the time. And then there are some other individuals that I'm not recalling them right now, but I can certainly provide them to you after.
00:19:40.440Sure, that would be very helpful. Now, you mentioned that this piece that you were working on was to be used as a pilot and perhaps implemented across other departments as a technical solution for C-56. Were any other departments indicated to you where it might potentially be used if it went well at CBSA?
00:20:04.380So it was supposed to be used by the entire government for Bill C-65, and that's why the CBSA wanted to be the ones, they said that they were the pathfinders, they wanted to get the credit for it. So everybody we spoke with was for the same implementation of that same solution that was being pathfound or being identified as a pathfinder by the CBSA.
00:20:23.120Okay, so we have names such as Cameron MacDonald. Obviously, Mr. Doan was here the other day, the then-president, Mr. Ozowski, the now-president, Ms. O'Gorman. Were there any other officials at CBSA that you communicated with?
00:20:38.880Well, Antonio Utano was the one that I sent the report to, and we were told by Mr. First that he does a lot of business with Mr. Utano. There was also the individual I named today, which was Diane Daly, that she stepped in after we submitted the report.
00:20:52.820And there's a list of individuals within the CBSA who were engaged with the Butler project one way or another. So Mr. McDonald specifically gave us some names. For example, he mentioned that Pierre Lessard has the values and ethics piece of this task authorization. The individual who's now in charge of the investigation of this file within the CBSA. So there's a long list of individuals who were involved in this pilot.
00:21:22.820Was there ever any mention of a minister or communication with a minister as to a ministerial decision for this pilot project?
00:21:32.220For this pilot project, specifically, no.
00:21:34.780But for the enterprise licenses that were the bigger licenses for the Government of Canada, yes.
00:21:46.800Were you consistently communicating with Mr. Firth?
00:21:49.720was was he your only non-governmental contact relative to the relative to these contracts or
00:21:57.340to this contract that is correct yes okay um you mentioned that mr uh firth brought in um
00:22:04.320mr mcdonald as well as uh mr briard uh was there was there any other party uh who was involved in
00:22:11.400these conversations in in the middle person conversation well for the pilot no it was just
00:22:17.580mr firth but for the bigger enterprise uh software yes it was an individual by the name
00:22:23.800of von brennan who mr firth uh stated that he rubbed shoulder with every adm in town and he
00:22:31.180was brought in as a consultant okay as a consultant it is our time i'm afraid thank you very much
00:22:37.160thank you okay so there's more to this
00:22:44.400and they're going to be resuming that conversation next week
00:22:50.200where does this money go is it being funneled through ghost corporations and if so
00:23:00.140who actually does it go to there must be a way to trace all of this and yet for some mysterious
00:23:06.800reason it never does get traced do you recall a few years ago when katherine mckenna who was then
00:23:13.140the uh climate minister the whatever they called her uh climate barbie environment minister
00:23:20.660she said they were working on 40 projects across canada worth an estimated 35 billion dollars
00:23:30.180and they had somehow just lost track of these projects and that money where did it go
00:23:36.800Now, the conservatives did ask the right questions at that time, but they didn't belabor the point enough.
00:23:43.180And the media just dropped it, and so did the conservatives, because at that point it was no longer politically advantageous for them to do so.
00:23:50.900Why? Do people not care about billions and billions of dollars just vanishing?
00:28:56.340How did this ever happen three times?1.00
00:29:01.420Look at him. That is the prime minister of this country. As hard as it is to believe. Three times. Now, I can understand the first time people were hungry for change. Stephen Harper had been prime minister for nine years. He had a dour sort of demeanor about him. He'd never looked really happy when he smiled. It looked stilted, almost like Mr. Burns from The Simpsons.
00:36:52.780You know, the grisly patriot Mark Friesen comes on the show and he says the Conservative Party is the party that got us into this mess in the first place.
00:37:00.780Back in 1992, when Brian Mulroney's government signed the initial deals for the 2030 agenda.
00:37:07.240Back then, I think it was the 2020 agenda.
00:37:19.360As a matter of fact, back then it was known as the Progressive Conservative Party. That party is no longer a party of national interest in Canada. That party merged with the Canadian Alliance back in 2001, 2002, and became the Conservative Party of Canada under the leadership of Stephen Harper.
00:37:38.320Now, I do understand that there were some deals signed with the United Nations in 2008 and 2015, just before Justin Trudeau took power, that are spurious.
00:37:51.720But we don't know so much about those deals.
00:37:56.600Maybe Mark could enlighten me a little bit more.
00:37:58.620I understand that Jason Kenney, or one of Harper's ministers, was the actual author of one of these UN-17 Sustainable Development Goals.
00:50:54.180But there are also many things I don't know, which I've always been honest about.
00:50:58.800I don't know where I'm from, who my birth parents are, or how I ended up a misfit in a typical white Christian New England home, she went on to say.
00:51:07.400I realized decades ago that I would never have the answers.
00:51:11.600She first gained popularity in the 1960s for her songwriting, with many of her songs being covered by Elvis, Janis Joplin, also numerous appearances on Sesame Street.
00:51:21.460In 1982, she became the first indigenous person to win an Oscar for Best Original Song, co-writing Up Where We Belong, which appeared in An Officer and a Gentleman.
00:51:31.600Her adoptive parents were Albert and Winifred St. Marie.
00:51:34.460Her mother identified as part Micmac and was from Massachusetts.
00:51:38.540Other accounts say their surname was Santa Maria and that they were of Italian and English descent, later changing the name to St. Marie to avoid anti-Italian discrimination after World War II.
00:51:49.180So if she doesn't know where she's from, how does she know she's indigenous in the first place?
00:52:00.820Well, according to St. Marie's authorized biography, she presumed she was born Cree on Peapot, a First Nation in Quipel Valley, Saskatchewan, around 1940, although there was no official record of that.
00:52:17.880To be born Cree in the 1940s in Canada was to be a person who was not always counted, at least not in a formal and legal fashion.
00:52:25.520Birth records from the time, particularly on reserves, were spotty, and there are countless reports of records being lost or destroyed.
00:52:32.220The reasons for her adoption were never made clear.
00:52:34.480Some accounts were that she was born out of wedlock, while others allege her mother died in a car accident.
00:52:40.660Some members of St. Marie's own family deny her claim she was adopted from Saskatchewan.
00:52:45.140there are also numerous discrepancies in her account of ancestry. She wasn't born in Canada.
00:52:51.620She's clearly born in the United States, said Heidi St. Marie, the daughter of St. Marie's
00:52:55.740older brother, Alan. She's clearly not indigenous or Native American. Documents obtained by CBC
00:53:02.840support the claim of her niece, including a birth certificate of St. Marie from Stoneham, Massachusetts,
00:53:08.220that she was born in 1941. St. Marie and both of her parents are listed as white on the document.
00:53:14.040Her marriage certificate, a life insurance policy, and a United States census all corroborate the information listed on the birth certificate.
00:53:22.460The Peapot family, however, said she was adopted into their family in the traditional way in a recent statement made to combat the allegations, which they call hurtful, ignorant, colonial, and, you guessed it, racist.
00:53:37.020We claim her as a member of our family, and all of our family members are from the Peapot First Nation.
00:53:42.680to us that holds far more weight than any paper documentation or colonial record-keeping ever
00:53:48.800could, reads the family statement. All right, so here we go with the aboriginal industry.0.88
00:53:57.820Every child matters. When you hear that statement, what does it say to you? What is the first thing
00:54:05.380that you think of? Please write it down in the comments. I would love to know your thoughts on
00:54:10.840this. Every child matters. Never mind the feathers here. Never mind the color orange. Every child
00:54:19.060matters. What does that mean to you? Mouth of the South instantly says BLM. Yeah, very good. Very
00:54:29.200good. Barb says every child. Right. It should be every child, no matter what race, creed, religion,
00:54:40.840Whatever. Every child matters. Am I right?
00:58:10.880Now, there is a book out there, it's been out for over 15 years now, and it's called Disrobing the Aboriginal Industry, the Deception Behind Indigenous Cultural Preservation.0.92
00:58:23.880this is very important that we understand what this is well keeping in mind that aboriginal
00:58:34.080people have been treated deplorably by the canadian government no matter the party as
00:58:39.180long as canada has been a country and by that i mean they continue to give them barely what they
00:58:47.540need to survive but never ever bring them into the culture or society and help them grow while
00:58:56.640keeping their cultural background. Instead, they keep them apart and give them benefits for staying0.59
00:59:05.640on reserves. Now, what does the native leadership in Canada do? They complain constantly about not
00:59:14.640enough money. And so the Trudeau government gives them more money and they take it and they remain
00:59:22.340quiet for a couple of months. And then they start asking for more money again. Now, where does that
00:59:28.580money go? We can't really say for sure in every situation on every reserve across this country
00:59:34.740that the chiefs and their council take it, even though I know that to be the case in several1.00
00:59:41.540different reserves across the country but it makes sense when we see native people homeless
00:59:50.260and the ratio is ridiculous when it comes to homeless people native versus0.79
00:59:55.380white or any other color at least in this city in this area of the country0.94
01:00:01.700so why is that it's corruption of course it's corruption and they want to keep feeding the beast1.00
01:00:09.460so it's the aboriginal industry which is exactly what it is0.50
01:00:16.580the book came out in 2008 and here's a bit of a review on it disrobing the aboriginal industry
01:00:26.520pulls no punches as it argues not against the aboriginal peoples of canada themselves but
01:00:31.960against the policies which have failed to bring them prosperity authors francis widowson and
01:00:37.420Albert Howard assert that aboriginal land claims and demands for self-government were not originally
01:00:42.160made by first nations communities but rather by an expansive and parasitical aboriginal industry
01:00:48.900this includes lawyers anthropologists and other consultants these groups along with certain0.97
01:03:58.340so he writes on his x page and by the way jim has been on the show before we should get him on again
01:04:04.140harper's former speech writer gets standing ovation for questioning residential schools
01:04:10.120as houses of horrors no bones no excavations no names no nothing there is no proof that
01:04:20.140killing aboriginal students and kids ever happened on mass anyway in this country even
01:04:27.060though justin trudeau says yeah that happened and he lowered our flags for six months a couple of
01:04:33.600years ago to make all canadians feel guilty this is what global news said a speech at an annual
01:04:39.420prayer breakfast here in calgary continues to be scrutinized tonight the keynote speech came under
01:04:45.220fire after nigel hannaford addressed a crowd at the westin saying there is no evidence of the
01:04:50.100horrors of indian residential schools anna sadhu joins us now with the latest developments on all
01:04:55.500of this because I know this came up at tonight's police commission meeting it did Joel primarily
01:05:00.660because police were in attendance at the Thursday morning breakfast there was an honor guard present
01:05:06.540conducting a procession at the start of the faith-based event Hannah Ford is former prime
01:05:12.320minister Stephen Harper speechwriter and was also a journalist in the audience for former and current
01:05:18.640politicians like Preston Manning, Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sani, MLA Chantel
01:05:25.120Dijon, Minister of Municipal Affairs Rick McIver, and former City Councillor Jim Stevenson.
01:05:31.020Members of the Calgary Police Service and the Canadian Armed Forces were acknowledged by the
01:05:35.680crowd. Hannaford referred to the unmarked graves of the residential schools as unlikely, saying
01:05:41.960quote, there are no excavations, no bones, no names, just an allegation.
01:05:47.640Members of the public asked the Police Commission about their thoughts on the CPS involvement.
01:05:53.100Some in attendance saying Hannaford's speech was hateful.
01:05:56.940Was I aware that the Honour Guard officers had attended?
01:06:01.160Not specifically, but I'm not surprised because we have attended.
01:06:04.580And I view the breakfast, the prayer breakfast,
01:06:06.980similarly to all of the other hundreds of other events we go to all year long.
01:06:11.560And there are opportunities, sometimes it's with faith communities, sometimes it's with other community groups, to be able to, you know, build relationships, build trust, and sort of post-COVID, it's been really, really important to get out and do that.
01:06:23.240We encourage the service to connect with the community in all of the various areas that the community represents.
01:06:32.720This can be unpredictable and unknown, and we understand that the values of that particular event were certainly not in alignment with what we would have expected.
01:06:41.900With the exception of one person, the audience gave Hannaford a standing ovation.
01:06:47.800Minister Rick McIver's office still hasn't provided a statement to Global News.
01:06:51.680On Friday, Minister Rajan Sani said it is undeniable that many unthinkable atrocities occurred at residential schools, adding an important part of reconciliation is that we continue to listen and learn.
01:07:05.340All right, Anasudu, live here in studio. Thank you.
01:07:07.440Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, so look, we're going to get to the Jordan Peterson thing in just a second.
01:07:12.300No excavations have happened. They say they found these bodies underground with ground penetrating radar near Kamloops two years ago. But so far, there is no proof that any bodies exist there. There has been no excavation. Why? Because they don't want it to happen.
01:07:32.120here in winnipeg we have a landfill and there's been a campaign afoot from some in the aboriginal
01:07:41.520community for the past three or four months and now that we have an aboriginal premier
01:07:45.120it may happen they want to excavate the brady landfill here now the previous pc government
01:07:54.360said we can't do that there's far too much danger including noxious gases and who knows what kind
01:08:00.300of deadfalls exist in there we don't know if we're going to send a team in there they're ever going
01:08:04.480to come out it's a landfill garbage galore never mind noxious fumes and whatnot what what kind of
01:08:12.500awful disgusting things would you have to go through looking for bodies in there
01:08:17.660having said that there is a push on right now to get this excavation happening at this landfill
01:08:28.040The City of Winnipeg City Council today voted that,
01:08:31.580well, if there is going to be an excavation because this is on city property,
01:08:35.260it's going to have to be funded by the provincial government
01:27:48.620And fighting these woke and DEI school boards is the first step to getting our country back, getting rid of this woke ideology that is now permeating our institutions, our federal government, our provincial governments, our civic governments.