Dr. Arthur Porter was announced dead on Canada Day, July 1st, an irony that is not lost on some people, but for Crown officials in Quebec, proof is required.
“I am waiting for official confirmation.”
Crown prosecutor Marie-Hélène Giroux, told The Canadian Press on Thursday, that without this evidence, the fraud charges against Dr. Porter will remain.
“I am waiting for official confirmation. Until then, for me, the file is not closed.”
Two investigators from Quebec’s anti-corruption unit, known as UPAC, are now in Panama to confirm the death.
“We have received no official confirmation of the death of Arthur Porter from Panamanian authorities,” UPAC said in a statement Thursday.
“We have also not received the evidence required to validate the authenticity of a body.”
“biggest fraud in Canadian history”
Dr. Arthur Porter is the larger-than-life character who grew up in Sierra Leone, was educated at Cambridge, and became a well respected oncologist. His rise continued with positions at hospitals in Canada during the 1980’s; first in Edmonton, Alberta, and then London, Ontario. He moved on to the Detroit Medical Centre in 1991 and became CEO in 1999.
In 2004 he was named 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 suddenly in December 2011, as questions were being raised.
Dr. Porter was at the centre of a web of international connections and allegations but it is his alleged position at the centre of a $22.5 million bribe and kickback scheme in connection with the construction of the new McGill University Health Care Centre (MUHC) that hangs over his head today.
It is alleged he pocketed over $11 million dollars. In interviews with CBC Dr. Porter answered questions about the alleged kickbacks by saying he had a contract with SNC-Lavalin “for consulting and developing businesses in Africa” to explain the $11.25 million that went to Porter family accounts.
SNC-Lavalin was awarded the $1.4 billion dollar project that recently opened in Montreal’s west-end. Six other people have been charged in connection with what is now described as the “biggest fraud in Canadian history”.
Porter’s wife, Pamela, pleaded guilty to charges of money-laundering in December 2014. She was recently released and is now living in a halfway house where she will do volunteer work and undergo psychological treatment as part of the conditions of her release. She has said the family, herself and their four daughters, are now in mourning.
It was reported on Wednesday that two of Dr. Porter’s four daughters had gone to Panama to pick up his body.
It has remained a mystery why Dr. Porter preferred to remain in the notorious La Joya Prison in Panama, fighting extradition to Canada, where he may have recieved better medical treatment, or at least been treated sooner, but his biographer, Ottawa’s Jeff Todd, said Dr. Porter didn’t think he would get a fair trial in Canada.
Quebec’s Premier Philippe Couillard, a doctor himself, had established a medical-related company with Porter in 2010 before returning to politics. When asked on Thursday about the reports of the death, said,
“My only comment…is this is a sad ending for a very sad story,” he told a news conference in Roberval, Quebec.
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