A Monday night standing committee meeting on Industry and Technology saw an explosive testimony from a whistleblower alleging a coverup by the Trudeau Government of mass-scale financial corruption from one of their non profits.

The whistleblower, Israr Ahmad, recently worked for two years on financial due diligence and compliance projects for Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC).

SDTC is funded by the Trudeau Government’s Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED), and is referred to by the Conservatives as the “green slush fund.” The SDTC provides grants to small and medium sized businesses that specialize in sustainable technology.

Ahmad said the SDTC has improperly funded nearly $150 million taxpayer dollars to businesses that had ties to SDTC executives themselves. Amid these allegations, SDTC’s CEO Leah Lawrence resigned on November 10, and board president Annette Verschuren also resigned last month after it was discovered she approved $217,000 in funding from SDTC to her own firm.

“Serious breaches of the conflict of interest policies”

Ahmad said numerous SDTC employees brought up concerns of mismanagement of funds and almost all were subsequently fired. He further said that Canada’s Auditor General, Karen Hogen, requested documentation of the claims, which was subsequently provided in an over 300 page presentation. 

“It highlighted non-compliance with the SDTC act and contribution agreement across all of the organization’s funding streams and serious breaches of the conflict of interest policies by the executives and board,” Ahmed said.

But instead of relieving the board members for corruption, the Privy Council office (PCO) and ISED engaged in an “egregious coverup” Ahmad said.

“The Minister and PCO have been aware of this file for more than they are telling to the public and there’s even documented evidence that they even engaged with everyone at ISED to make sure there were edits to the briefings before they were officially sent to them.” 

Champagne implicated in cover up allegations

Liberal ISED Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne acknowledged corruption allegations in October after receiving the report in question and said that he was pausing all funding to the SDTC until new protocols were put in place.

However, Ahmad said that Champagne’s ISED protected the names of those implicated by blacking them out.

“Even more shocking is the fact that despite these findings ISED continues to allow these individuals to manage taxpayer dollars and allows them to continue perpetuating the abuse against employees who’ve been desperately seeking protection from their own government for over a year.” 

The whistleblower further said all of his claims are backed up by documents submitted to the committee which have not yet been made public. 

“Not a single one of the individuals responsible for these issues has faced a single consequence,” he said.