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Canadian security analysts saw that as a clear conflict of interest, and as something that should have been flagged before Dr. Porter was made SIRC chairman in 2010, if not earlier.

After he resigned, a PMO spokeswoman said the office “didn’t have any knowledge of the dealings noted” in theNational Post expose.

She also said the office was not responsible for background checks or financial disclosures, and she referred those questions to the PCO. The PCO said little about what it had done to vet Dr. Porter.

Asked how he had been identified to lead SIRC in the first place, Dr. Porter said he believed it was thanks to his business and administrative acumen. “I’m good at perhaps maybe running things,” he said, just prior to his resignation. “You know, managing time and managing motion.”

At the time he was also director general of Montreal-based McGill University Health Centre, one of Canada’s largest public-health providers. He resigned that position a few weeks after leaving SIRC, and now lives with his wife in the Bahamas, where he operates a private cancer clinic.

In December, an expert panel commissioned by the Quebec government found the MUHC had been badly mismanaged under Dr. Porter’s direction, which began in 2004. It pointed to myriad financial irregularities that haven’t been explained. According to the panel’s report, “the MUHC did not follow the law.” The Quebec government has asked a special anti-corruption police unit to investigate. In the meantime, the MUHC has been placed under the supervision of an appointed trustee.