Dr. Arthur Porter in a March 2013 photo taken in his Nassau home, while fighting both cancer and extradition to face charges of fraud in Canada

Dr. Arthur Porter in a March 2013 photo taken in his Nassau home, while fighting both cancer and extradition to face charges of fraud in Canada
Photo Credit: CP / Jeff Todd

Arthur Porter dies in Panama

Dr. Arthur Porter, a cancer specialist, accused of fraud in a Montreal hospital project and jailed in Panama, died late Tuesday night.

Porter, originally from Sierra Leone, earned degrees at Cambridge University and became an oncologist. He began work in Canada in the 1980’s, first in Edmonton, Alberta, and then London, Ontario. He moved to the Detroit Medical Centre in 1991 and became CEO in 1999.

In 2004 he became head of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC). In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed Porter to the security intelligence review committee, which he eventually chaired before resigning in December 2011.

This was the beginning of a major reversal of fortune, as his dealings in the development of a business in his native Sierra Leone began to raise questions.

He soon left the helm of the $1.4 billion super-hospital development for the MUHC.  He was eventually charged with fraud and having allegedly received $11.25 million in secret, for rigging the hospital contract in favour of SNC-Lavalin.

Porter had settled in Nassau, in the Bahamas where he was building his cancer clinics in the Caribbean, and treating himself for lung cancer. While on business, he was arrested in Panama City in May, 2013, and spent his remaining time in the notorious La Joya prison.

He was transferred to the Santo Tomas Oncology Hospital in Panama recently. Writer Jeff Todd co-wrote a biography of Dr. Porter, called “The Man Behind the Bowtie”.  Arthur Porter leaves behind his wife, who was also charged and convicted in the fraud scandal, and four daughters.  He was 59.

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