Wife of fugitive in Panama loses petition in Montreal

THE WIFE of a Montreal man, sitting in a Panama jail while fighting extradition, has been refused permission to move to Florida while awaiting trial in Canada.

The Montreal Gazette reports that Pamela Mattock Porter stared blankly as a Quebec Superior Court judge who on Thursday December 19 rejected her request to move to Florida to await her trial on money-laundering and conspiracy charges arising from the McGill University superhospital contract.

Mattock Porter, 53, is charged along with her husband, Arthur Porter, the former head of the McGill University Health Centre, of laundering $22.5 million in alleged bribes that two former SNC-Lavalin executives appear to have made to win the $1.3-billion superhospital contract. Porter has been incarcerated since May in a Panamanian jail and is fighting extradition to Canada.

Mattock Porter showed up at the Montreal courthouse Thursday morning with one of her daughters, Fiona Porter, and she spoke to the judge about her request in soft, measured tones.
A publication ban was placed on the court hearing, but Crown Prosecutor Marie-Hélène Giroux later explained to reporters that Mattock Porter’s “flight risk is the main reason why the proposal was rejected by the court.”
Giroux added that a preliminary hearing for Mattock Porter’s trial is set for March 2015.
Prior to the hearing, Mattock Porter had submitted a written motion to the court, seeking “to have her (bail) conditions reviewed as to allow her to travel to and reside in the State of Florida” with one of her four daughters so that she would “not be deprived of her family.”
Her motion stated that she was willing to surrender her passport to Canadian authorities upon arrival in the U.S.
Mattock Porter and her daughter sat together in the second row of the courtroom. She wore a tweed jacket and black slacks, and had on earphones as an interpreter translated much of the French proceedings into English for her.
During the hearing, Sgt. Jean-Frédérick Gagnon, the chief provincial police investigator in the case, gave a lengthy presentation that was shown on a widescreen TV. Fiona Porter, wearing a bright red coat, often stared at that TV screen while Mattock Porter kept her head down.
Mattock Porter and her husband were arrested in Panama on May 26. Unlike her husband, she did not contest her extradition to Canada. After being returned to Quebec in police custody, she was initially denied bail.
But she later succeeded to secure release on appeal in Superior Court in August on $250,000 bail and on condition that she remain in the province while her case is pending, among other restrictions.
Apart from Mattock Porter and her husband, five other men face charges stemming from the alleged bid-rigging scheme, including two ex-SNC-Lavalin executives and a former MUHC director of real estate.
Meanwhile, the Supreme Court of Panama is to render a decision anytime until mid-February on Porter’s motion challenging his extradition.