I would like to start off by saying thank you, Mr. Chair and honourable members of the committee.
This land that we gather on today is the traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation and is now home to many other first nations, Métis and Inuit peoples.
I am a descendant of treaty-signing chief Robert Franklin, who is my great-grandfather and was past chief of Alderville First Nation. He was also a World War I veteran. I hold the Alderville First Nation community near and dear to my heart, as this is what forms my indigenous ancestry. I have family who live there and my father is also buried there next to my great-grandfather.
I, too, am an indigenous veteran. I served in the Canadian army for 14 years, from 1987 to 2001. Following this, I joined the Canadian Armed Forces reserves for another 10 years, from 2001 to 2011.
From September 1991 to February 1992, I was deployed to Cyprus as part of a UN mission with the 2nd Battalion, The Royal Canadian Regiment. I was a C9 machine gunner and driver along the front lines for six months.
From August to November 2010, I was deployed to Afghanistan as a contractor for the Department of National Defence to deliver a high-assurance security capability to Kandahar. We also went outside the wire to all the forward operating bases as well. I received a Command Commendation for my contribution to Task Force Kandahar.
I am a tactical security specialist, with expertise and certifications in high-assurance guarding technologies for the Canadian Armed Forces on both mobile platforms and specialty areas within the CAF.
In 2002, I founded Dalian Enterprises, which is a hardware and software cybersecurity company. The Government of Canada is Dalian's primary customer.
From 2002 until September 2023, I was not an employee of the Canadian government in any capacity, but a contractor providing IT professional security services through Dalian to the Department of National Defence.
Since 2002, Dalian has been regularly audited by Indigenous Services Canada to confirm compliance with all requirements of the procurement strategy for indigenous business. The company has passed every one of them, including one just recently in February 2024.
The PSIB is designed to help indigenous entrepreneurs like me start and grow a business by providing them access to procurement opportunities from the Government of Canada, either directly or through partnership. The PSIB has been successful in helping many indigenous-owned companies, including Dalian, to launch, grow and prosper.
In late September 2023, long after the completion of all work on ArriveCAN by Dalian, my professional relationship changed with the Department of National Defence. It changed from that of a consultant providing IT professional security services to a public service employee with the PIPSC union. That happened on September 19, 2023.
Due to this change, I took steps to address any conflict of interest concerns by entering into a confidentiality, non-disclosure and no-access agreement with Dalian, in which I agreed to refrain from participating in any Dalian proposals, projects, contracts, ventures or any other activity relating, directly or indirectly, to the Department of National Defence.
Since becoming a public service employee of National Defence, I've honoured that agreement. I have not been involved in any management or operations at Dalian and have not had access to Dalian confidential information of any kind.
I also made the appropriate conflict of interest filings with the Department of National Defence, resigned as a director and officer of Dalian and put my Dalian shares into a blind trust.
Unfortunately, no one from the media ever contacted Dalian or me before publishing reports late in February that suggested that I was a public service employee for decades. This resulted in an unfounded allegation at DND that I was in conflict of interest.
I understand that DND has now made a statement that there was no conflict of interest, but I had already made the choice and resigned from the public service after just 168 days, mostly due to this very difficult situation.
Even more disappointingly, no one from the federal government had ever contacted Dalian or me before undertaking the unfounded action of terminating all contracts with Dalian—hardware and software, and professional services—suspending security clearances, suspending Dalian and Coradix from continuing current work and competing for future opportunities with the Government of Canada, their primary customer for 22 years and 29 years respectively. This all happened within 48 hours, without due diligence or, in our concept, due process.
There has not been a single review, investigation, audit, report or study that has indicated Dalian or Coradix did anything wrong or illegal during ArriveCAN or the ArriveCAN project, or any other government project that we've been involved with.
Despite this and as a result of these unfounded terminations and suspensions, hundreds of employees and consultants are already out of work, or soon will be, from both companies. Neither company has done anything wrong or different for the past two and three decades of working with the federal government.
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
