NASSAU, Bahamas – Arthur Porter, the former head of the CSIS watchdog agency who is wanted on fraud allegations, says he has late, stage-four cancer and is too ill to travel from the Bahamas to Canada.
Porter told The Associated Press during an interview in his home that if Canadian investigators want to question him they should fly to the Bahamas.
The 56-year-old says he is suffering from lung cancer that has spread to his liver.
Quebec’s anti-corruption squad has issued an arrest warrant for the doctor.
Porter is among several people facing fraud-related charges stemming from the construction of a $1.3-billion Montreal hospital that was one of Canada’s biggest infrastructure projects.
In the Bahamas, Porter is the managing director of a cancer treatment centre.
The federal government has taken flak for its decision to appoint Porter to a role where he would have had access to sensitive security information.
Porter had already had a controversial stint as a hospital administrator in Detroit before arriving in Canada. Eventually, he quit his job at Canada’s security-intelligence panel and left the country, following reports in 2011 of questionable ties to an international security consultant.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said the Montreal criminal case has nothing to do with the work Porter did for the Government of Canada when he was head of the Security Intelligence Review Committee.
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“It’s a matter that’s ultimately going to be before the courts,” Harper said Thursday when asked for a reaction to the charges during a visit to Riviere-du-Loup, Que.
“I’d just point out that none of these matters relate to his work in his former federal responsibilities.”
Five men face charges in the latest arrests related to the McGill superhospital site.
They are: former SNC-Lavalin senior executives Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa; Jeremy Morris, the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company; former Montreal hospital executive Yanai Elbaz; and Porter.
Elbaz appeared briefly in court Thursday to be formally charged with fraud. He was freed on $100,000 bail, awaiting his criminal case.
Elbaz was Porter’s right-hand man and served as the director of redevelopment, planning and real estate management for the hospital.
Under his bail conditions, Elbaz is not permitted to speak to a long list of people – including his co-accused, as well as a lengthy list of SNC-Lavalin and McGill University Health Centre employees who could be witnesses.
He is also forbidden from going to either the building that houses the offices of the multinational engineering firm or to those of the McGill hospital administration. He has also been ordered to hand over his passport, he cannot leave Canada, and he must report to Quebec provincial police headquarters every Friday.
– With files from The Canadian Press
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