Buckdog

The web of intrigue, corruption and crime surrounding Harper's Conservatives grows ever wider.
Arthur Porter, former head of McGill University Health Centre mega-hospital in Montreal, appointed by Prime Minister Harper three years ago to head this wathchdog agency charged with overseeing the spying and intelligence gathering activities of the CSIS, fled Montreal for Panama accompanied by his wife in late 2011, carrying with him $ 22.5 million in funds embezzled from the hospital, presumably the proceeds of fraud involving bribes from co-conspirators SNC-Lavalin. The former spy agency watchdog and spouse, charged with crimes ranging from fraud to conspiracy to commit government fraud to laundering the proceeds of a crime, have since been arrested in Panama on charges of fraud against the Quebec government.

As for the other co-conspirators in this alleged widespread conspiracy and fraud, SNC-Lavalin, ostensibly one of the largest engineering firms not only in Canada, but with a global reach, responsible for projects such as the James Bay Project and construction of Highway 407 in Ontario, it would appear from media reports that engineering projects were only a sideline for this company, much more actively engaged in spying, international political conspiracy and intrigue, bribery, money-laundering, smuggling and military adventures involving former Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi, than the CSIS whose activities Arthur Porter was charged with monitoring.
CBC news reported in February 2012 that "one of the people accused in an alleged plot to smuggle members of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi’s family to Mexico was with an SNC-Lavalin executive when police took her into custody".
The CBC news report further reports that hapless SNC-Lavalin operative Cyndy Vanier, "who set up the meeting that Roy and Huerta attended, has been jailed since she was taken into custody on Nov. 10. She along with two Mexicans and a Danish citizen are all accused of a list of offences including attempted human trafficking, involvement in organized crime and falsification of documents."
Now it is not altogether clear whether SNC-Lavalin were simply hired help and minions of the Gaddafi regime, or whether Gaddafi himself was on the SNC-Lavalin payroll. SNC Lavalin are reported to have hired Gaddafi's son, Saadi Gaddafi, as consultant overseeing projects in the Middle East. SNC-Lavalin did host Saadi Gadaffi in Canada for three months in 2008, providing, among other things, a security team to protect him, and went so far as to sponsor and submit Gaddafi's application for immigration to Canada at the same time as the aborted human smuggling operation into Mexico.
Running a covert criminal operation along the same lines as Prime Minister Harper's PMO, SNC-Lavalin knows when it's time to bail and sacrifice a few lackeys to ward off further RCMP pursuit.
Thus the National Post reported in February 2012:
"A pair of SNC-Lavalin executives who had been linked to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi’s son, Saadi Gaddafi, have lost their jobs, the Montreal-based engineering and construction firm announced Thursday night."
"In a brief news release, SNC-Lavalin said Riadh Ben Aissa, a Tunisian-Canadian who served as executive vice-president, and his accountant, Stephane Roy, were no longer employed by the company."
There is a chain of corruption, fraud and criminal conspiracy extending from SNC-Lavalin to Arthur Porter to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and we have yet to see what further RCMP investigation or testimony before the Quebec commission of enquiry into corruption and fraud in Quebec may reveal.