“They're investigating two individuals—not you—within the organization. As part of the story, because you're involved, your name pops up many, many times, but there are no—not necessarily in some of the stories that they're developing—there's holes, and there's not necessarily documents that are associated to those holes. So they need, and unfortunately, you have an obligation to respond, and we'll get to how we're going to support you, because we're going to have to respond. They will need to interview you and to fill in those gaps in information that they have in the story. Can I just say that? Yeah.”
I said, “So the information I have via email from CBSA clearly states it's an option.” “Why? Really?” “Yes, so it's an option.” I said, “Respectfully, I decline.” “Okay, I didn't know that.” “I have it in writing,” is what I replied to her. “Okay, I'm very uncomfortable with who they are and they”—my former DG and my former senior director or executive director at the CBSA, Antonio Utano and Cameron MacDonald, who were at OGGO—“are honest, transparent, integrous people. I worked with Cameron when he worked at Public Works, for instance. You can ask anyone in real property who he was.”
I say about Ms. Dutt, in answering a former committee member's question, this woman came to OGGO with these things. I don't even remember her name. It was a name on a task authorization, by the way. This was a TA amongst many TAs. That was in The Globe and Mail, me asking for somebody who had already been paid to pay this person, which was perfectly fine.
“Tom and I discussed that,” is what the DG said. I replied, “Yeah, so I try and do the best by everybody. I'm telling you, I'm advised that I know that Minh Doan was known in the IT group.”
Minh Doan, I was told, by the way, decided to go with GC Strategies. I don't know that for a fact, which I informed the CBSA of in my email. I said, “They asked me to reconsider, and I did not respond after I had already made a fulsome statement.”
My DG said, “As an option, you know what, Diane? I'm not going to argue with you. Would you be comfortable sharing the information?”
She said, “Well, I think, like, first of all, I think it would be fair, I do not...what I was going to suggest to you today—and this is all new information that was presented as an option to you—was that we as your employers support you through the process. We would be there to make sure you don't feel like, I don't know, like a fish in a crocodile pond when you're interviewed by the CBSA. They're just doing their job, is how they [Inaudible—Editor] information got presented to me and Tom. Like, they have a job to do. They're the equivalent of the departmental oversight branch.”
“The departmental oversight branch does internal reviews here within the department. This is what they were doing there. However, given the profile of this file, and I'm sure you've responded to audit questions before in your career as a public servant, this feels different.” I said, “I can just imagine they are a police force unto themselves, so I do not trust what they have to say, to be clear.”
“Okay, so in order to make you feel comfortable, what I'm going to suggest to Michel is that one of us management sits with you through this process, because the way things were presented to me, despite what they wrote to you, was it's an obligation.
