MPs summon owners of firm behind ArriveCan to testify or face arrest

The owners of GC Strategies are being summoned again to appear before the government operations committee amid the ArriveCan controversy.

Wednesday’s passage of a Conservative motion came a day later than the party originally hoped for after debate around amendments stretched until the end of the allotted meeting time.

Under the passed motion, GC Strategies owners Kristian Firth and Darren Anthony are to testify on dates determined by the chair of the committee.

However, if they do not respond to the summons and appear, the motion called for the Sergeant at Arms of the House of Commons to take them into custody and compel their appearance.

That typically does not happen automatically, and only if the House of Commons backs the committee’s request to have such a warrant issued for the individuals in question.

In their motion, Conservatives note that both owners have previously been summoned by the committee on two separate occasions in November and then earlier this month. Firth and Anthony previously appeared before the committee on Oct. 20, 2022.

The latest summons comes after the ArriveCan app came under renewed scrutiny by MPs after auditor general Karen Hogan found that nearly $60 million was spent on the app, but in her report released last week could not come to a conclusive dollar figure due to poor record-keeping.

“Common-sense Conservatives are calling GC Strategies and its employees to testify under oath at a parliamentary committee,” Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said in comments preceding the vote on Wedneday. “They’re refusing and so we’ve put forward a motion to have them arrested and physically dragged into the room to explain where our quarter-billion dollars went. Where’s the funds?”

During Tuesday’s