As a former public servant, I spent many years of my 26-year career raising concerns internally at my place of work, the Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA), the last 8 years of which were very serious, all to no avail.

The wrongdoing put at risk Canada’s relations and credibility with allies of the Canadian government and put at risk national security and international security due to:

• the potentially criminal behaviour which included but not limited to the destruction of foreign Passports that should have been retained for identity purposes and legal purposes in case the wanted individuals were located by any law enforcement agencies in Canada or internationally.
• large volumes of passport information which had gone missing from my desk that was destined to be entered in the Lost Stolen Fraudulent Database (LSFD).
• actual passport’s which had gone missing from my desk. The information about the passports was to be entered into various CBSA databases for Law enforcement purposes.

As nothing was done internally except for subjecting me to serious reprisals, ultimately, I had to go to external authorities who could have and should have helped but didn’t. This included my federal liberal MP, the Minister responsible, the Prime Minister, the RCMP and the Public Service Integrity Commissioner.  It also included testimony in Parliament.

So far, no independent investigation has taken place. The public and our members of parliament do not understand the jeopardy our country is being placed in by the potential entry of bad actors due to the wrongdoing and inaction of responsible authorities including Parliament.

Overview:

I am a former public servant of 26 years of experience. I mostly worked in operational environments for the Federal govt. I also worked as a licensed investigator in the private sector. I had a distinguished career handling top secret documents within the National Defence intelligence unit from 1990 to 2001 around the time of events of Sept 11, 2001, in the USA.

In 2001, I was offered to join The Canada Immigration Enforcement that was later amalgamated with the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) when it was created.

At the CBSA, I was the quality control operator of critical and specific information entries in a federal enforcement database that would contribute in part to national and international security.

More precisely, this included The Lost Stolen Fraudulent Database (LSFD) and the secure storage and tracking of passports, citizenship cards and other identity-related documents that came into CBSA’s possession that could be used for traveling.

My work with the LSFD directly supported all law enforcement agencies domestically or internationally, especially when they needed to verify the validity of a document that could be used for traveling to Canada or internationally.

The extent of what has transpired in my unit at the CBSA goes beyond what is acceptable by law and the policies in place.

I am seriously afraid that the Canadian public and members of parliament, including some liberal ministers, would be outraged if I was permitted to speak in detail about everything that has transpired in my unit during my employment at the CBSA

To this day, I am unable to speak freely about it because of fear of reprisal against me and lack of support from the current govt in power to initiate a public inquiry on the matters that have occurred at the CBSA

The CBSA needs an independent oversight body and some people in position of authority at the CBSA need to face justice for what they have engaged in at the workplace and their actions against me, my colleagues and Canada.

Chronology of Events:

• 2006: As early as 2006 I was exposed to wrongdoing and criminal acts in the workplace. My observations were so significantly concerning that I advised management and to my great surprise I received no support from them.

• 2009:  In 2009 I was overwhelmed by the seriousness and gravity of what I was witnessing, so I decided to contact the Office of Internal Disclosure and meet with them to try to rectify the situation.. It did not take long for retaliation against me to manifest itself. I was directly and verbally confronted in my workplace by the individual that I reported on. Even though that meeting was supposed to be confidential to protect me, somehow somebody advised management at my level. That was very serious. I then realized that I was alone and nobody to report my observations to since I had previously attempted to report this to the office of professional standards with no avail. So! I discreetly started keeping various records of events over the following years with supporting documentation should there ever be an investigation.

o I endured a first wave of administrative and psychological harassment by the actual management and offending colleagues. This lasted for a few years, and it included a requirement by management for a medical note permitting me to use the washroom more than twice a day. I also received threats to my person and against my children.

o At one point for a while, I was having health issues, and we didn’t really know what it was!! It was later determined that hand sanitizer had been placed in my coffee.   We don't know just how long this has been going!!! This was like a psychological game right!! So, this was really, really wrong!!  

o  It escalated to serious sabotage and vandalism - overturning boxes with documents, and destruction of my work. Management just stood still and did nothing!

o The retaliation against me was always escalating and was very severe in nature.

o  It was taking its toll on me physically and emotionally, making it very difficult for the important detailed work that I was engaged in, where the mistake factor was enormous and with serious consequences on members of the public.

o It is important to mention that all Law enforcement agencies relied on this critical information in the LSFD DATA BASE to be accurate!. The information that I input into this database makes the difference between a conversation between the border officer and an innocent party wanting to enter Canada or the apprehension of an individual or a known criminal who is in possession of a travel document that is listed in the database. So, I can’t make mistakes, my sustained attention must be there. With all the other distractions that were happening in the background this made it very difficult for me.

o By the virtue of the actions of the offending individuals with regards to the sabotage of my work, they actually placed national security at risk and international security at risk including the credibility of the CBSA and the Canadian govt. This is how serious this was!

o One female supervisor that tried to help me by denouncing this inappropriate conduct towards me also faced severe reprisal by the senior management and she subsequently lost her career in the process.

• 2015. These situations culminated in an extraordinary incident in 2015.  My colleague and I received an order from senior management to illegally destroy thousands of the passports being held in our secure area. This was contrary to any policy’s, regulations or any rules that we had! We were also directed to falsify the federal secure tracking database, by creating individual false records for each passport, recording the destroyed passports as having been returned to the issuing agency, some of them being the allies of the Canadian Government. Again, this was very serious.

o This mass shredding would have assisted countless wanted criminals by destroying intelligence and evidence against them.

o I personally verified these documents that had already been destroyed and they were invaluable!! They containeda recent and last known picture of individuals or wanted criminals, that we no longer knew the whereabouts of in Canada. They were also essential as evidence in securing convictions should we locate those individuals.

o My colleague and I refused to comply with this illegal order. Management induced a more junior person to comply, whereupon I began to photograph and document what was being done, because I needed to ensure that if something happened, we had proof that it had been done.

o At that point management halted the process and ‘only’ about 300 passports were destroyed.

o By defying our bosses in this way, my colleague and I became marked individuals. A major, major campaign of retaliation against me and my colleagues was initiated by management and offending colleagues, with the sole aim of damaging us both professionally or personally and destroying us in order to catch us at fault and justify dismissal.

• 2015 to 2016. By the end of 2015 I had been the victim for 8 years of extremely excessive psychological / physical/ administrative harassment and abusive management in the workplace and I had reached the psychological breaking point and suffered a psychological collapse.

• On Feb 16, 2016, when I didn’t think things could get worse! I was summoned to a mandatory meeting without any support from my union. I was issued a letter in the presence of a director requiring a medical evaluation to see if I am fit to work. I was strongly and verbally encouraged by the issuing director to consider permanent long term medical retirement. This administrative procedure was the employer's final phase towards me, and it was a major retaliatory measure on the part of the employer for the passport situation that we exposed and for also being an internal whistleblower.

• Feb 16, 2016. I departed on medical leave from CBSA with PTSD never to return to the federal govt. my career had been destroyed!! And my life was ruined.  Not too long after my departure, my colleague suffered the same fate and he resigned from the agency.

• Around 2019, the bloc Québecois reviewed my file and the MPs started asking questions about my case including the local media that infuriated the CBSA management. Even though I was on official permanent medical leave approved by Health Canada since 2018, the administrative process of my medical pension with Health Canada was still subjected to more administrative delay until the MPs of the block Québecois started asking questions again.

• 2022 – 2023. It was only after I testified in parliament for Bill C-290 in 2022 and 2023 to amend and strengthen the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act that my medical pension was processed by the CBSA.

The extent to which institutions will discredit employees places a doubt on the administration regarding procedural fairness and it destroys the life and career of hard-working loyal employees.

Our government needs to make changes to protect workers at every level of society. It is essential that justice be done in a fair and impartial process free from bias.

The public’s confidence is at its lowest currently, and situations like mine are a testament as to  why.

Hopefully if Bill C 290 is accepted in the Senate of Canada no other federal public servant should ever face the level of reprisal that I was subjected to.

To this day I have never received an apology or remedy from the Federal Government for the loss and destruction of my career and my health.

Luc Sabourin