Arthur Porter was a donor to the federal Conservatives during his time at Canada's spy watchdog, public records show. But his contributions appear to have run afoul of guidelines that all members of the Security Intelligence Review Committee must abide by.

Elections Canada records show Porter gave the Tories the maximum donation allowed by law over a period spanning the weeks leading up to his appointment to SIRC through to his rise as chair.

The former head of SIRC now faces allegations of fraud in connection with the MUHC superhospital project. Porter had been the director-general of the MUHC when the alleged fraud occured.

The Canadian government is trying to extradite Porter from the Bahamas, where he runs a medical clinic and is apparently cancer-stricken. He has said he is too ill to travel, and he denies the allegations against him.

Reliable Conservative donor 

Until recently, Porter — a medical doctor and cancer specialist — was a reliable Conservative donor.

Porter made two donations totalling $1,100 less than three weeks before Prime Minister Stephen Harper appointed him to SIRC in September 2008.

In 2009, he made two more donations for a combined $1,100. Harper appointed Porter chair of SIRC in June 2010. That October, he once again donated as much the law let him.

Porter resigned from SIRC in November 2011. Elections Canada records show he has not given money to any political party since 2010.

SIRC executive director Michael Doucet told The Canadian Press all committee members are briefed by the Privy Council Office on, among other things, the rules that apply to them when it comes to political activities.

Those rules advise against making donations, joining a party or running as a candidate in an election.

"The members and the chair come to us having been briefed, and having the PCO doing their thing with them as privy councillors,'' Doucet said.

It appears Porter did not follow those guidelines.

"Potentially,'' Doucet said. "We'd really have to talk to the PCO, because that is their bailiwick.''

Donations stretch back to 2004

Porter's days as a Tory donor stretch back nearly a decade.

Elections Canada records show Porter gave the Conservative party $1,000 in September 2004. In January 2006 — three days before Harper's Conservatives came to power — Porter donated another $1,000 to the party.

In October 2006 — before donations were capped at $1,100 — he made a $1,275 donation to the Conservative riding association of Laurier-Sainte-Marie in Montreal. Former Bloc Quebecois leader Gilles Duceppe held that seat from 1990 until being toppled by the NDP's Helene Laverdiere in the last federal election.

It appears likely the October 2006 donation was part of a fundraiser or event. Nearly 400 people donated to the Conservative riding association of Laurier-Sainte-Marie on the same day as Porter, Elections Canada records show.

Porter did not immediately return a message left with a receptionist at his clinic in the Bahamas.

Porter is among the five people named in arrest warrants issued by Quebec's anti-corruption squad, in the case of the $1.3-billion construction of the MUHC superhospital.

The others are: former SNC Lavalin senior executives Pierre Duhaime and Riadh Ben Aissa, Yanai Elbaz and Jeremy Morris, the administrator of a Bahamas-based investment company. The warrants say the men are wanted on numerous charges, including fraud, breach of trust and document forgery. They say Porter and Elbaz are suspected of having accepted bribes from some of the others.

Photo: La Presse