ADDICTIONS FOUNDATION WHISTLE-BLOWER WHISTLED FOR YEARS BEFORE ACTION
TAKEN

Spending abuses at an Aboriginal addictions treatment centre located
north of Winnipeg has landed the organization in deep water.

In a recent media report, a former worker at the centre said he warned
Health Canada about the abuses, but he said he was ignored repeatedly.

The issue came to national attention recently when it was revealed the
centre provided a Caribbean cruise for staff.

In an interview, the former centre employee said he began delivering
files, bank statements and other evidence of potential fraud at the
Virginia Fontaine Addictions Foundation to Health Canada's internal
auditors in 1994 - six years before 70 staff members took a cruise at
taxpayers' expense.

At one point, the employee said he travelled to Ottawa to plead with
them to take action.

The employee, who left the treatment centre in 1996, said he believes
political concerns got in the way of Health Canada acting on his tips.

Health Canada launched a forensic audit and called in the RCMP's fraud
squad when the Caribbean cruise story broke on the eve of a federal
election. The funding fiasco at the treatment centre set in motion a
number of arrests involving not only former senior Health Canada
officials, but also a top executive of the VFAF as part of a massive
investigation. In total, nine people were charged in Manitoba and Ontario.