COVID-19
ArriveCAN execs got $340,000 in bonuses

From the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Author: Ryan Thorpe
“It doesn’t matter how good any of my other work is, if I blew a project so badly that it cost my company $54 million and became a national scandal, there’s no way I’d be getting a bonus”
Federal health executives responsible for the ArriveCAN app received $340,000 in bonuses, according to government records obtained by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
“The government executives involved with ArriveCAN should be getting pink slips, not bonuses,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “This is the ultimate example of failing government executives being rewarded with taxpayer-funded bonuses.”
Between March 2020 and September 2022, eight executives from the Public Health Agency of Canada were assigned to the ArriveCAN project in various capacities, according to the records.
Five of the eight executives received an “at-risk” bonus for 2020-21, while four of the eight received a “performance” bonus. Six of the eight executives received an “at-risk” bonus for 2021-22, while two received a “performance” bonus.
All told, the PHAC executives working on the ArriveCAN app received a combined $342,929 in bonuses for the 2020-21 and 2021-22 fiscal years.
The records obtained by the CTF were released in response to an order paper question from Member of Parliament Jeremy Patzer (Cypress Hills-Grasslands).
“It is not possible to discern what part of the bonus … would have been attributed to [work on] the ArriveCAN application,” according to the records.
“It doesn’t matter how good any of my other work is, if I blew a project so badly that it cost my company $54 million and became a national scandal, there’s no way I’d be getting a bonus,” Terrazzano said.
The Canada Border Services Agency also had employees assigned to the ArriveCAN program but did not release details on how much in bonuses, if any, were paid out to its executives on the file.
In October 2023, the CTF testified before a parliamentary committee investigating the ArriveCAN scandal.
“Taxpayers are out of $54 million because of the ArriveCAN app,” Terrazzano told the committee. “Which bureaucrat is out of a job? Which bureaucrat is even out of a bonus?”
The ArriveCAN app launched in April 2020 with a price tag of $80,000.
By October 2022, the cost of the ArriveCAN app had spiralled to $54 million.
In November 2022, independent tech experts recreated the ArriveCAN app over a single weekend, with some saying the app’s development should have cost around $250,000.
Significant sub-contracting irregularities related to ArriveCAN have also been identified, including a two-person staffing firm in the Ottawa region receiving up to $2.7 million in commissions despite doing no IT work on the project.
A report into ArriveCAN from Canada’s Auditor General is due Feb. 12, 2024.
COVID-19
Court compels RCMP and TD Bank to hand over records related to freezing of peaceful protestor’s bank accounts

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a judge of the Ontario Court of Justice has ordered the RCMP and TD Bank to produce records relating to the freezing of Mr. Evan Blackman’s bank accounts during the 2022 Freedom Convoy protest.
Mr. Blackman was arrested in downtown Ottawa on February 18, 2022, during the federal government’s unprecedented use of the Emergencies Act. He was charged with mischief and obstruction, but he was acquitted of these charges at trial in October 2023.
However, the Crown appealed Mr. Blackman’s acquittal in 2024, and a new trial is scheduled to begin on August 14, 2025.
Mr. Blackman is seeking the records concerning the freezing of his bank accounts to support an application under the Charter at his upcoming retrial.
His lawyers plan to argue that the freezing of his bank accounts was a serious violation of his rights, and are asking the court to stay the case accordingly.
“The freezing of Mr. Blackman’s bank accounts was an extreme overreach on the part of the police and the federal government,” says constitutional lawyer Chris Fleury.
“These records will hopefully reveal exactly how and why Mr. Blackman’s accounts were frozen,” he says.
Mr. Blackman agreed, saying, “I’m delighted that we will finally get records that may reveal why my bank accounts were frozen.”
This ruling marks a significant step in what is believed to be the first criminal case in Canada involving a proposed Charter application based on the freezing of personal bank accounts under the Emergencies Act.
Alberta
COVID mandates protester in Canada released on bail after over 2 years in jail

Chris Carbert (right) and Anthony Olienick, two of the Coutts Four were jailed for over two years for mischief and unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose.
From LifeSiteNews
The “Coutts Four” were painted as dangerous terrorists and their arrest was used as justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government, which allowed it to use draconian measures to end both the Coutts blockade and the much larger Freedom Convoy
COVID protestor Chris Carbert has been granted bail pending his appeal after spending over two years in prison.
On June 30, Alberta Court of Appeal Justice Jo-Anne Strekaf ordered the release of Chris Carbert pending his appeal of charges of mischief and weapons offenses stemming from the Coutts border blockade, which protested COVID mandates in 2022.
“[Carbert] has demonstrated that there is no substantial likelihood that he will commit a criminal offence or interfere with the administration of justice if released from detention pending the hearing of his appeals,” Strekaf ruled.
“If the applicant and the Crown are able to agree upon a release plan and draft order to propose to the court, that is to be submitted by July 14,” she continued.
Carbert’s appeal is expected to be heard in September. So far, Carbert has spent over two years in prison, when he was charged with conspiracy to commit murder during the protest in Coutts, which ran parallel to but was not officially affiliated with the Freedom Convoy taking place in Ottawa.
Later, he was acquitted of the conspiracy to commit murder charge but still found guilty of the lesser charges of unlawful possession of a firearm for a dangerous purpose and mischief over $5,000.
In September 2024, Chris Carbert was sentenced to six and a half years for his role in the protest. However, he is not expected to serve his full sentence, as he was issued four years of credit for time already served. Carbert is also prohibited from owning firearms for life and required to provide a DNA sample.
Carbert was arrested alongside Anthony Olienick, Christopher Lysak and Jerry Morin, with the latter two pleading guilty to lesser charges to avoid trial. At the time, the “Coutts Four” were painted as dangerous terrorists and their arrest was used as justification for the invocation of the Emergencies Act by the Trudeau government, which allowed it to use draconian measures to end both the Coutts blockade and the much larger Freedom Convoy occurring thousands of kilometers away in Ottawa.
Under the Emergency Act (EA), the Liberal government froze the bank accounts of Canadians who donated to the Freedom Convoy. Trudeau revoked the EA on February 23 after the protesters had been cleared out. At the time, seven of Canada’s 10 provinces opposed Trudeau’s use of the EA.
Since then, Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley ruled that Trudeau was “not justified” in invoking the Emergencies Act, a decision that the federal government is appealing.
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