So, even though the Senate was waiting for Wade and his attorney Andrew Bennett to show up at 11, they didn’t arrive until 12:15, and shortly after that, the long delayed hearing began.  Wade has been at the department for 27 years, and he has been a Senior Immigration officer for the past 10 years.  As head of the Nationality and Permanent Residency Sections during the period under investigation, his name appears over 75 times in just the Nationality Report

So the Senate went straight to the Citizen Kim passport scandal, and here’s a few of the questions that the Senators had for him:

Hon. Aldo Salazar, Chairman - Senate Select Committee
"Mr. Penner, did you treat him as if he had the authority to take a file from you?"

Gordon Wade - Former OIC, Nationality Section
"He was the Minister of Immigration sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"What is the answer to the question? Did you treat him as if he had the authority to take a file from you?"

Gordon Wade
"Yes sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"You had specific interaction with then Minister Penner in relation to this file-"

Gordon Wade
"Yes sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Did he bring it directly to you?"

Gordon Wade
"No sir."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"How did the file come to you and how did it come about?"

Gordon Wade
"The file was brought into the office by him, it was submitted to the front desk at the acceptance clerk."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"That's your understanding that or you were with him?"

Gordon Wade
"No I was not with him."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Okay so was submitted at the acceptance clerk and then how did it get to you? I want to know how it is that you ended up getting involved in this file."

Gordon Wade
"As I mentioned I am the final Vetter so all files come to me."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Right so what happened, I want to know what happened. Came to you and?"

Gordon Wade
"What came to me?"

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"The file."

Gordon Wade
"As I'm saying as the final Vetter in the section all file come to me. In this particular case you are talking about, the Minister came to inquire whether the file was ready or not for which I responded to him, we are awaiting additional documents as you promised."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So Minister Penner came to you and asked whether this particular file was ready?"

Gordon Wade
"That's right."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Or you would have checked on it, you checked on the file?"

Gordon Wade
"Yes."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Right and you noted what?"

Gordon Wade
"That the file was incomplete."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Do you recall what was incomplete?"

Gordon Wade
"If I am not mistaken it was the complete copy of the passport and I think a police record, they had applied but not gotten the actual police record yet, something to that affect. I haven't seen that file for the last 4 or 5 years I couldn't remember specifically what was missing at that time."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"But it was incomplete?"

Gordon Wade
"It was incomplete."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"And you told him it cannot be processed?"

Gordon Wade
"I told him I cannot process the file until the other documents are presented which would have made the file complete."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"And that's when he told you he was going to take it to-"

Gordon Wade
"He was going to take it up to the next level which is the director."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Okay. He never came back to you in relation to that file?"

Gordon Wade
"Never came back to me with that file."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"Did the director mention the file to you at any point?"

Gordon Wade
"No."

Hon. Aldo Salazar
"So that was the last time you heard about-"

Gordon Wade
"When he informed me that he would be taking up to the director."

Hon. Ashley Rocke - Church Senator
"Well we learned that this file there were people who apparently benefited from this file because first of all the file was illegal, the man was in jail, there was no way he could have been in Belize so that there had to be some payment, some benefit that came from this file for it to have been processed the way it was processed. So I'm asking you are under oath here today, was there any way you benefited from this file?"

Gordon Wade
"No sir."