A public servant was found guilty of breach of trust last week after he admitted to transferring nearly $250,000 of taxpayer funds to his privately owned company.
The RCMP announced that Marc Primeau, a former Liberal government employee who was responsible for the transport of goods at Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, has received a 24-month conditional sentence for breach of trust.
According to the police, Primeau inappropriately used his position as an ISED employee to direct purchases totalling $231,663.48 from the government agency to his personal and solely owned company Access Security Logistix, between Feb. 1, 2016, and Sept. 26, 2018.
The RCMP began investigating after changes to ISED’s internal accounting and record-keeping practices led to the discovery that Primeau purchased goods from his personal company with taxpayer funds. He was dismissed from his job at ISED in February 2019, and the evidence was handed off to the RCMP for investigation.
Primeau admitted to directing 72 sole-source contracts to ASL in an agreed statement of facts while successfully competing for six purchase orders.
“Primeau was the person responsible for ensuring that goods were properly received from ASL to ISED while concealing his relationship with ASL from ISED,” the news release said.
Primeau pleaded guilty to breach of trust, and other charges were withdrawn. He paid $90,000 back to ISED as restitution funds, an amount reflecting an estimate of the profit he illegally made from the deals.
“The RCMP is committed to acting with integrity. This investigation demonstrates that we are committed to keeping our nation safe, by protecting the integrity of the federal government and preventing the abuse of tax payers’ dollars,” the officer in charge, Supt. Jeremie Landry, with the Sensitive and International Investigations Unit of the RCMP, said in the release.
The SII unit investigates “sensitive and international crimes threatening Canada’s interests such as those directed towards the institutions of government, public officials, the integrity of the Crown, or otherwise imperil Canada’s political, economic and social integrity.”
The Conservative ethics and government accountability critic, MP Michael Barrett, said the case is an example of Canadian taxpayers paying for corrupt government insiders in the Liberal government – adding to a list that is nearly “too long to remember.”
“Justin Trudeau is leading the most ethically compromised government in Canadian history, setting an example that has spread to every part of his corruption-prone government,” Barrett told True North in an email. “Trudeau himself is a serial ethics violator having been found guilty of breaking ethics laws twice, and members of his government have been slapped with six violations. It comes as no surprise that Ministers and insiders under his watch are following his behaviour.”
Barrett listed several ethics violations and scandals under Trudeau’s government including the misappropriation of funds related to the ArriveCan app, SNC-Lavalin, WE Charity.
“The list of Liberal scandals are almost too long to list,” he told True North. “For Liberal insiders and consultants, life has never been so good, meanwhile Canadians struggling to put food on their table or keep a roof over their head are paying the price for Trudeau’s waste and corruption.”
Barrett added that it’s high time politicians such as Trudeau and his “insiders” who are implicated in corruption and crime are fired and held accountable for their actions.
The Prime Minister’s office did not respond to True North’s requests to comment.