The Tribune

By DANA SMITH

Tribune Staff Reporter

dsmith@tribunemedia.net

DR ARTHUR Porter says he still has not received any official arrest warrant and defended himself against allegations surrounding the McGill University Health Centre, calling it a “perfect process” that is going up “on budget and on time.”

Meanwhile, Canadian authorities say they are working with the Bahamas to bring cancer chief Dr Porter “back to Canada” where he has a warrant out for his arrest.

Dr Porter also confirmed he is currently battling late-stage cancer. He said he would not travel in his present condition.

According to the Canadian press, Dr Porter, managing director of the Cancer Centre of the Bahamas, is wanted on charges of committing fraud against the government, accepting bribes, and conspiracy.

A man named Jeremy Morris, who resides in Nassau, is also wanted by Canadian authorities. He is the alleged principal of a company believed to be linked to the fraud allegations surrounding Montreal’s McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), according to Canadian press.

Anne-Frédérick Laurence, a spokesperson for Quebec’s anti-corruption squad, which issued the warrants, said yesterday: “We have a collaboration between the countries and the object is to get back to Canada, both Porter and Morris.”

When asked to comment, Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell said yesterday, he “only knows what (he) read in the paper” and hasn’t received any formal information from Canadian authorities with regards to Dr Porter or Mr Morris.

Dr Porter told The Tribune: “I have not heard anything officially from anybody and since I left McGill in 2011, I have not been contacted by any of the authorities.

“Everything I’ve read is through the press, and you know, the last year and a half it has been one thing after another in terms of this was my problem, this was my problem, this was my problem.”

He cannot comment on any of the allegations levelled against him, he said, until he gets a “chance to review them” and consult with a legal team.

“But what I can say is that if it has anything to do with the big process for the McGill University Health Centre, I believe that process was a perfect process that allowed a hospital – which is going up, as we speak and apparently is on budget and on time – to be developed,” Dr Porter said. “It’s not that it’s stalled or anything. It’s there and it’s going up, right now, in Montreal.”

He said he’s “very disappointed and somewhat angry” by having to respond to all of the information in the press, without the opportunity to “really understand them.”

He noted that “everybody else in Montreal” can reach him via mail and reiterated that he has not received anything from Canadian authorities.

When asked if he has any connection with Mr Morris, Dr Porter refused to comment — explaining that he is not comfortable responding to any of the allegations having not officially received a warrant and official details.

He gave a similar response when asked if he would travel to Canada to face charges – if that point is reached; and when asked about an Associated Press article which attributed him as saying that he is too ill to travel, he confirmed his battle with late-stage lung cancer and said he would not board a plane.

“Right now I have – as you know – pretty advanced cancer. It is considered stage 4 and I’m on my second go-round of chemotherapy,” he said.

“I am not well at the moment, but these are things that have been talked about and going around since 2009, 10, 11. I’m hoping that this disease that I have, I too will beat. But today with my lung issue etcetera, I’m not jumping on a plane, that’s for sure.”

For the last few years he has been worried about his reputation, Dr Porter confessed, noting the many allegations that have appeared in the press about him.

“It’s been constant different things about what I do in my own country – in Sierra Leon, what I did in the security area, what I did in the hospital – so there are a lot of different things that have been pushed against me over the last year,” he said.

“Over that time, my reputation has taken a bit of a beating. However, I’ve always been successful and I always look to a better day. Right now, I’m sort of engaged in probably the greatest fight of my life – the one that I have the least control over, and so you know at the same time, I’m expected to win this battle.”

Dr Porter’s warrant came after investigators had probed the circumstances surrounding his resignation from MUHC in 2011.

Warrants were also issued for Mr Morris, MUHC’s former director of redevelopment Yanai Elbaz, former SNC-Lavalin CEO Pierre Duhaime, and former construction head Riadh Ben Aïssa, according to Canadian newspaper The Globe & Mail.

The Globe & Mail had said 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 alleged that the hospital network was the victim of fraud in connection with its planned super-hospital.

Last year, two former executives at SNC-Lavalin – the engineering firm that was awarded the contract during Dr Porter’s tenure – were charged with multiple criminal offences, including fraud and using falsified documents.

Those two former executives were Mr Duhaime and Mr Ben Aïssa.

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 in Nassau but no operations, the newspaper said, naming Jeremy Morris as the alleged registered principal of Sierra.

Attempts by The Tribune to reach Sierra Asset Management to question if there are any links between Dr Porter and the company, proved unsuccessful. Representatives at the building said the company is not housed at that location.

Mr Morris has not returned The Tribune’s request for comment.