Arthur Porter (physician)

Arthur T. Porter IV, PC, MBBChir (born in 1956 in Freetown, Sierra Leone) is a Canadian physician.

He served as Chair of the Security Intelligence Review Committee of Canada which reviews the activities of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. He was appointed to the position by Conservative Prime Minister Stephen Harper on September 3, 2008, and along with that appointment, was made a Privy Councillor, giving him the title, "The Honourable".

He resigned in December 2011, three months before the end of his contract, after the National Post published revelations of his business dealings with international lobbyist and close ties to the president of Sierra Leone. Porter's questionable business dealings and foreign connections included his relationship with Ari Ben-Menashe, a Montreal-based businessman and an ex-Israeli international lobbyist and arms dealer, who was arrested and charged in the United States for illegally attempting to sell military transport airplanes to Iran. He was succeeded by Chuck Strahl.

Early life
His father, Arthur T. Porter III is a noted Sierra Leone Creole historian and anthropologist of African-American, Jamaican, and European descent.

Porter received his early education in Sierra Leone and Kenya, East Africa. After attending the University of Sierra Leone, he transferred to the University of Cambridge in England, where he received his B.A. degree in anatomy, M.A. in natural sciences and his Medical degree. Later, Porter earned his M.B.A. from the University of Tennessee and certificates in Management from Harvard University and the University of Toronto. He was also bestowed a Fellowship and Diplomate status in Healthcare Administration from the American Academy of Medical Administrators.

Career
Following his training in Medical and Radiation Oncology, Porter assumed several senior positions in Canada, including that of Senior Specialist at the University of Alberta, Chief of Radiation Oncology at the London Regional Cancer Centre (University of Western Ontario) and Chairman of Oncology at Victoria Hospital, Ontario, Canada. In 1991, he was appointed Radiation Oncologist-in-chief, Professor and Chairman of the Detroit Medical Center and Wayne State University. During the subsequent five years, Porter accepted several other concurrent positions, including Director of Clinical Care at the Karmanos Cancer Institute and Associate Dean at the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Porter’s extensive international background includes medical practice, business and academic leadership positions in Canada, Europe, Africa and the United States. He has also served as a Consultant to the World Health Organization and World Bank, and worked to establish international research and treatment programs in Turkey, India, Yemen and the Gulf Cooperation Council, the Caribbean, Brazil, Liberia, and throughout Europe. Porter opened the first state-of-the-art cancer centre in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas known as the Cancer Centre.

In 1999, Porter was named CEO of the Detroit Medical Center, a US$1.6 billion health system, which is also one of the United States’ largest urban systems and the largest non-government employer in Detroit. The current success at the Detroit Medical Center is tied to Porter’s commitment to streamlining the cost of care, developing the largest outsourced technology contract in the USA, and implementing lean-time management programs and training to the 14,000-plus-employee organization. During his time in Detroit, Porter served as a Vice-Chairman of the Detroit Chamber of Commerce, the largest municipal chamber in the USA. In 2001, U.S. President George W. Bush appointed Porter to the Presidential Commission charged with reviewing the health care provided by the Department of Defense and the Veterans Administration. In August 2002, Michigan Governor John Engler appointed Porter to a four-year term as Chairman of Michigan’s Hospital Commission.

In February 2004, Porter was appointed Director General and CEO of the McGill University Health Centre in Montréal, Canada, one of Canada's largest academic health centres engaged in a multi-billion-dollar redevelopment project and an award-winning public-private partnership. He completed a second term in December 2011, handing over the leadership reins after helping the academic health centre achieve major milestones, including the largest grant to a single institution from the Canada Foundation for Innovation (nearly $100 million) that was matched by the Quebec government and supported by donors to bring research funding to $250 million, and the April 1, 2010 groundbreaking of the future Glen site, now well under construction.

He served concurrently as the President of the Réseau universitaire intégré en santé McGill (McGill RUIS), an integrated health delivery network serving 1.7 million people. Making the improvement of health care a priority since his early career, Dr Porter shared his perspective in various forums, including the Canadian Club of Montreal. He also formed the MUHC's Institute of Strategic Analysis and Innovation, an in-house policy think tank, with a view to encouraging national debate and constructive changes. In January 2012, the MUHC held recognition events to thank Dr Porter for his invaluable contributions.

Achievements
Porter is a Past President of the American Brachytherapy Society; the American College of Oncology Administrators; the American Cancer Society (Great Lakes); and the American College of Radiation Oncology. He has also served as Chairman of the Board of Chancellors of the American College of Radiation Oncology and on the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Cancer Institute (USA). Between 2006 and 2008, Porter served on the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), which oversees government funding for health-related research in Canada. In 2008, Porter was appointed to a life term as a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada while Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed him to Canada’s Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC). He has been awarded Fellowships by the American College of Radiation Oncology; the Royal Society of Medicine; the American College of Oncology Administrators; the American College of Radiology; and has received testimonial resolutions from the City of Detroit, the County of Wayne and the State of Michigan. He has been honoured with the Award for Excellence from the Detroit Medical Society, the Healthcare Executive of the Year award and the Harry Schubin M.D. Statesman in Healthcare Administration award from the American Academy of Medical Administrators, among others. In 2000, he was also selected to be one of six ‘Michiganders of the year’. Porter has been on the Editorial Board of 13 scientific journals and has to his credit more than 300 scholarly works in peer-reviewed journals, chapters in books and in conference proceedings. He is credited with introducing several novel concepts to radiation therapy. He is a frequent speaker at universities and medical conferences throughout the world. His major areas of academic endeavour relate to the medical uses of radioactive isotopes and the treatment of prostate cancer.

Term at McGill University
In November 2012, McGill University filed a lawsuit seeking repayment of $317,154 which he owes the university, and indicating that Porter responded to a letter in October demanding payment of the outstanding amount within one week only with a three-line email, and that they have not heard from him since then.

Following the controversy over the unpaid loans from McGill University, the university describes Porter as "of unknown address", with McGill's suit indicating he gave his current addresses as post office boxes in the Bahamas and in Sierra Leone. The National Post reported in November 2012 that he was receiving treatment for a "self-diagnosed" cancer in the Cancer Centre that he has established in the Bahamas and of which he is Managing Director. It also gave a link to a story in the Turks and Caicos Magazine, which refers to his establishing cancer centres both in the Turks and Caicos and Bahamas in conjunction with his long-time friend and business partner Prof Karol Sikora, who is Director of Medical Oncology at the Bahamas Cancer Centre;. in addition to their mutual cancer business interests in the British Isles.

Criminal charges and arrest
On 27 February 2013, an arrest warrant was issued in relation to the McGill University Health Centre scandal.

Porter and his wife Pamela Mattock were detained by Interpol agents in Panama on May 27, 2013, after an investigation by the Sureté du Québec, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). He faces charges in Canada of fraud, conspiracy to commit government fraud, abuse of trust, secret commissions and laundering the proceeds of a crime. Porter's wife is facing charges of laundering the proceeds of a crime and for conspiracy.

The fraud against the Quebec government is related to his alleged role in the handling of a $1.3-billion Montreal hospital construction and maintenance contract.

The contract was awarded to SNC-Lavalin Group Inc., the engineering giant deeply involved in the Quebec corruption scandal.

At the time of the alleged fraud, from 2008 to 2011, Dr. Porter director general of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal, Quebec, being in charge of one of Canada’s largest health-care providers. He was appointed to the position in 2004. He was also a member of Air Canada’s board of directors.

Porter and Mattock reportedly intend to oppose extradition from Panama to Canada. Porter is claiming diplomatic immunity on the basis that he was travelling via Panama on a diplomatic mission to Antigua and Barbuda, on behalf of the government of Sierra Leone, according to his lawyer Ricardo Bilonick Paredes (formerly known as Ricardo Bilonick). However, the Sierra Leone government says he is a goodwill ambassador and thus has no diplomatic immunity.