Problem & Summary:

The development of a much-needed invention to grow plants indoors and help ensure the safety and security of the food system in difficult climate conditions in Canada and around the world is being blocked by public servants with no explanation.

In February 2017 – I invented and designed a technology for growing plants indoors. The fact my PCT patent application was approved and certified by the Canadian international patent examiner showed that it was unique in the world, and it demonstrated that it had the potential to truly help with the safety and security of the food system. My invention integrated with AI, robotics, machine learning and data analytics will have tremendous benefits to growing plants, especially in some of the most challenging environments as in northern Canada and around the world.

Given the enthusiasm my invention was greeted with in NL, I incorporated a company there, began the R& D process with Memorial University of NL in collaboration with the National Research Council (NRC), held very positive discussions with various federal funding agencies and applied for funding.  Based on this, I moved from Calgary back to NL.  Within a year, i.e. by Feb. 2018, I became aware of possible collusion by public servants to sabotage my business.  Nevertheless, I continued my R & D/ business development work until October 2018 when I felt I had no choice but to file initial complaints with an MP and an MHA about the apparent bureaucratic interference in my legitimate attempts to grow my business.  The following years have consisted of on-going struggle to try to get to the bottom of wrongdoing by public servants that has taken a huge toll on me financially, psychologically and physically.  Worse, the wrongdoing has blocked the development of a much-needed invention nationally and internationally.  Why has this happened?  To date I have been unable to get any answer.

Below I provide an overview, a chronology of events, a list of responses and a list of some evidence. I have also attached an Appendix with more details.

Overview

My story is of collusion, corruption, potentially criminal acts, and a cover up which reaches the top levels of leadership across 12 public institutions within federal and provincial governments in the province of Newfoundland (NL), Canada, and includes some of our most trusted public institutions that are established to investigate and hold public servants accountable for their actions including corruption.

I have spent 20 plus years creating, developing, managing and understanding Policy and how it applies in Administrative Law and Regulatory Negligence. When a Policy or ACT states an Administrative Body has a right to execute the powers of their office, it also means that the Administrative Body has the obligation to execute those powers of their office. Not to do is a contravention of the ACT or Policy itself, as well as the enacted and mandated duties of the Office of the Public Body.

There are 3 categories of public servants involved by their actions and or inactions in the collusion, corruption, and potentially criminal acts perpetrated against me and my business that ended with the sabotage of my business and the accumulation of much personal hardship. The 3 categories of public servants are;

1. Those who committed the wrongdoings against me, including potentially criminal acts;
2. Those who covered up the potentially criminal acts; and
3. Those who turned a blind eye to it all by saying nothing and doing nothing.

I have included category 3 because, “where a decision to act or exercise a power is discretionary, in that inaction for no reason or inaction for an improper reason cannot be a policy decision taken in the bona fide exercise of discretion. And therefore, bad faith or irrational regulatory policy decisions (including failures to act) are actionable in negligence”.

I have provided much information and evidence of wrongdoings to senior public servants at all levels of government and public bodies. To date and for which I have documented, all I got was stonewalling of my communications and more targeting of my life by other public servants from other public bodies.

Chronology of Events:

• February 2017 – I invented and designed a technology for growing plants indoors.
• May – June 2017 - I contracted a patent agent to conduct a professional world patent search. That search was carried out by a Canadian International Patent Examiner from the Canadian Patent Office. The invention was identified as unique in the world by novelty, design and utility.
• July 4, 2017 - I incorporated the Company in Newfoundland.
• July 24, 2017 – We were granted the world Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) Canadian Patent Filing certificate for the invention.
• August 2017 - I traveled to NL to begin the Research and Development (R&D) work on the initial product and to continue discussions with various agency representatives and the collaborative engagement with Memorial University of Newfoundland (MUN), which I had established a month earlier.
• September 2017 - I contracted MUN Engineering and Applied Sciences to complete the Computer Aided Drawing (CAD) of the initial product and to provide expertise and grant funding support through their graduate student program, which they have in partnership with the National Research Council of Canada (NRC).
• September 2017 – After successfully engaging MUN to do the initial R&D work on the product, and with preliminary discussions with NRC and ACOA being positive, I travelled back to Calgary to begin the move to NL to build the Company.
• October - November 2017 – With my condo on the market for sale, I completed the other things necessary to move to NL. I stayed in continuous contact with the specific agencies seeking support for the upcoming R&D work, as well as other business development activities.
• December 4, 2017 - With cargo trailer in tow carrying my personal belongings, I arrived in my hometown of NL to continue to build the business.
• December 2017 - CAD drawings and 3D printing prototypes of the invention completed by MUN Engineering and Applied Sciences.
• February 2018 – Attended conference on business development in St. John’s NL and first became aware of the possible collusion by public servants to sabotage my business.
• March – June 2018 - Fabrication and construction of the growth trials Test prototypes completed by MUN Technical Services.
• June - August 2018 - Growth Trials of test prototypes completed by MUN Botanical Garden.
• September 2018 – Meeting with MUN’s Office of Outreach and Graduate Studies who wanted me to move my testing equipment and testing program to their new Makerspace facility in Corner Brook.
• October 2018- Meeting with MP Gudie Hutchings regarding the collusion and corruption of public servants. MP requested a report from me outlining my complaint.
• November 2018 – I filed my initial complaint document “NL Funding Initiatives 2017 – 2018” with MP Gudie Hutchings as well as MHA Scott Reid. That 33-page document listed the vast communications I had with numerous NL agencies’ representatives while I was seeking assistance for my business in NL. The information presented in that document has been gathered from emails, Access to Information Act Requests, meeting notes, recorded meetings and phone calls (including secret recordings), and government websites. The information presented in the complaint documented is in a fact based, time of events sequence format.
• March 2019 - sent out Information Requests to various public bodies and received responses to the requests. Identified falsified emails and deletion of emails that were requested in information requests.
• April 2019 – filed a complaint with the NL Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) for the provincial falsified email.
• September 2019 – filed a complaint with the Office of Information Commissioner of Canada (OIC) for the federal falsified email.
• February 2020 – moved to British Columbia for work and attempt to build the business. But the corruption followed me there to.
• March 5, 2020 – received letter from NL Tourism, Culture, Industry and Information (TCII) Deputy Minister Charles Brown on behalf of Minister Bernard Davis informing me they were reviewing my complaints regarding my engagements with public agencies.
• March 19, 2020 – filed complaint with the NL Office of Information and Privacy Commissioner (OIPC) against senior analyst with NL OIPC, for refusing to investigate my complaint of a falsified email.
• March 21, 2019 – received decision letter from OIPC Commissioner March 5, 2020, where he took full responsibility for not investigating my complaint of the falsified email and considered my complaint closed. His decision letter was sent to me only after I filed a complaint with his office against an OIPC analyst for not investigating my complaint as stated in the ACT.
• April 2021 - moved back to Newfoundland from British Columbia to continue to seek justice and stop the targeting of my life from public servants as was shown in British Columbia when I applied for funding from a Native Banking Organization in that province.
• May 2021 – CRA abruptly cut off my Covid support payments.
• September 2021 – last communication to the OIC regarding their investigation into my complaint of a falsified email and attempted cover up. The OIC investigated my complaint and found the falsified email but never responded to my request for their decision letter.
• November 2021 – received my Covid support payments from CRA which took six months and a 7-page complaint filed with the Taxpayer Ombudsman to get the money owed to me and benefits reinstated.

Responses:

The following is a list of the Responses I received from public servants consisting of unethical and potentially criminal acts in their engagements with me as I escalated my complaint up the chain of command.

• Dishonesty / Lack of integrity shown to me by public servants at all levels.
• Procedural Unfairness in “operational decisions” shown to me by public servants by assessing my business unfairly, and denying me support based on business activities I was not involved in.
• Deliberate delays in responding to my communications.
• Providing misinformation on agency policies, guidelines and procedures.
• Interpreting and manipulating agency guidelines and procedures.
• Spreading falsehoods about me and my business.
• Collaborating with and influencing other public servants to not support me and my business.
• Providing written evaluations of my business internally and to other public bodies for which the content of the evaluation is not debatable among reasonable people.
• Deleting emails that were requested through the Access to Information Act.
• Creating falsified emails in response to an Access to Information request.
• Encouraging and or supporting the creation of falsified emails.
• Covering up the falsified emails.
• Senior public servants including those who hold discretionary powers refusing to investigate my complaints of the falsified emails.
• Public servants deliberately targeting my life to create hardship including financial distress.

Evidence:

• A falsified email created to satisfy my information request by a public servant from MUN Grenfell College who stonewalled my communications to him. This email was addressed to me but sent to two of his supervisors instead.
• The background infrastructure data showing the UTC times and IP addresses the email was sent “from” and sent “to”, and proved beyond a reasonable doubt the email is a falsified email.
• A second falsified email to satisfy my information request created by a second public servant from a second public body, Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), who stonewalled my communications to him. This falsified email was addressed to me and sent to himself.
• IT personnel were brought in by the two public bodies to extract the falsified emails as a web-based email in order to change the format of the email and to satisfy my second Information Request. Knowing the emails were falsified the public bodies encouraged the IT personnel to commit criminal acts by trying to cover up the crime.
• A public servant from the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) deleted 19 emails which I requested in an Information Request. The public servant then lied to his own investigators about his engagements with me which those emails would have shown he was lying.
• A public servant deleted an email which was part of an information request to that public body.
• Recorded meetings and phone calls (including secret recordings).
• My investigation through the Access to Information Act also uncovered information that shows MUN Technical Services and MUN Botanical Gardens whom I originally identified as supporting agencies in my Complaint Document, was actually in fact, part of the collusion among public servants to sabotage my business by delaying the development and discrediting my invention.

Conclusion:

Citizens rely upon governments and regulators to protect them from harm. Governments have enacted Laws and Regulations to assist regulators in protecting citizens from harm. The Access to Information Act, the Privacy Act, the Public Servants Disclosure Protection Act including Serious Breach of a Code of Conduct, and the Criminal Code, are just a few of those Acts and Laws put in place to protect citizens from public servants who in the course of their operational decisions, cause undue hardship and destruction because of their personal bias.

I am confident that my complaints filed with the various public bodies will withstand the Anns Test, as well as show the unethical wrongdoings and potentially criminal acts of public servants and the covering up of it all.

I have spent much of my career developing and supporting policies for major companies and I have come to know individual behaviours are difficult to control, even with the best policies and codes of ethics in place.

I am serious about my business and finding answers as to why I could not get serious engagement to fund critically necessary Research & Development (R&D) work, from the very agencies in Newfoundland setup to support such work, and for which governments spend millions of dollars funding and promoting each year, and why public servants would go so far as to commit potentially criminal acts in order to deny funding requests and sabotage my business start up.

Thank you for taking the time to read this summary document briefly outlining my serious concerns for which I documented and filed with numerous public bodies and governments at federal and provincial levels.

If you have any questions or require further information please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kevin M. Lee

709 214 5723