The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

BAHAMAS cancer chief Dr Arthur Porter says he is “surprised and angered” on hearing that Canadian authorities have issued a warrant for his arrest.

The managing director of the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas is wanted on charges of committing fraud against the government, accepting bribes, and conspiracy, according to Canada’s The Globe and Mail.

Warrants were issued for Dr Porter and four other men by Quebec’s anti-corruption squad who told The Tribune they had started the “process” between Canadian and Bahamian authorities on Dr Porter’s arrest.

The warrants come after investigators had probed the circumstances surrounding his resignation from Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) network in 2011.

Yesterday, Dr Porter acknowledged the controversy surrounding his departure from Canada, but said he has not received any official notification regarding an arrest warrant.

“I am surprised and angered on hearing this information via the press,” he said. “Whilst I am certain there is no basis in fact, I have yet to see any documentation.

“Since I left Montreal in 2011, I have been subjected to scurrilous and scandalous allegations in the media. However I have never been contacted by the Montreal, Quebec or Canadian authorities in regard to this or any other matter.”

When “official information” is provided to him, Dr Porter said, that information will be reviewed and “appropriate action” will be taken.

It was last month that Dr Porter hit back at “spurious” allegations surrounding his business ventures, and tenure and resignation from MUHC.

According to The Globe & Mail, the Quebec government recently released the results of an audit that found the MUHC’s planned deficit of $12-million has ballooned to $115-million – a financial state so precarious that the hospital network has been assigned a special overseer to monitor its spending.

Quebec’s anti-corruption task force has also alleged that the hospital network was the victim of fraud in connection with its planned super-hospital.

In November, police charged two former executives at SNC-Lavalin, the engineering firm that was awarded the contract during Dr Porter’s tenure, with multiple criminal charges, including fraud and using falsified documents.

The Globe & Mail claimed Sierra Asset Management had signed a contract with SNC-Lavalin in 2009 to help secure a deal to build a new facility at MUHC; and earlier this month, investigators had questioned if links exists between Dr Porter and Sierra Asset Management.

Sierra Asset Management has a registered address at a Bay Street building but no operations, the newspaper said, naming Jeremy Morris as the alleged registered principal of Sierra.

Mr Morris is one of the four other men who are also wanted by Canadian authorities and reportedly reside in Nassau. Despite attempts by The Tribune, Mr Morris could not be reached for comment.

The Tribune understands there are two ways that Dr Porter and Mr Morris could be arrested in the Bahamas. One, the Bahamas police would have to issue an arrest warrant, or two, an extradition request would have to be made by the Canadian government.

Yesterday, Anne-Frédérick Laurence, a spokesman for the organisation which issued the arrest warrants, said the “process” had started between the Canadian and Bahamian governments on Dr Porter’s arrest, although The Tribune understands that as of 5pm yesterday, Canada had made no extradition request of the Bahamas government.