Thank you, Chair.
Thank you to our witnesses for being here today.
Imagine this: You are a public servant. You are someone who has made the decision to help your country. I personally made this decision as a member of the Canadian foreign service. You swear that you will act in your best possible capacity for the best interests of this country.
Now imagine that the worst situation for your nation occurs since wartime—a pandemic—and you are forced to make the best possible decisions that you can in your position for your nation with the information that you have. You do your best. You navigate the system, but things go wrong. The application you were working on ends up being a $54-million boondoggle, a stain on the government, which is already neck deep in boondoggles. It's another instance of possibly unethical behaviour by this government, and certainly incompetent behaviour by this government, and a definite lack of oversight. You tried your best, because you were a public servant.
The stress of the investigation of this $54-million boondoggle gets to you, so you go on medical leave. You think things can't possibly get worse, but they do get worse. They got worse for Cameron MacDonald, who was a director general at CBSA, and Antonio Utano, who was an ADM at the Canada Border Services Agency. Things got worse for them after coming here and giving what they believed was truthful testimony, their heartfelt testimony, to speak truth to power, to speak truth to Canadians, when they were suspended. They were not only suspended; they were suspended without pay. For what reason? They claim that they were misled by senior CBSA officials, that they were intimidated, that this was retaliation, that this was an attempt to muzzle them and that this was CBSA's opportunity to use them as scapegoats. There were no allegations, no details and no evidence. What they did receive were threats that decisions would be made if they were not compliant.
Ms. O'Gorman, I'm here to ask you this today on behalf of Mr. MacDonald, Mr. Utano, public servants everywhere and Canadians: Why were Mr. MacDonald and Mr. Utano suspended without pay?