Boissonnault’s former business associates to appear at committee

Article content

OTTAWA — Two former business associates of Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault will be on the hot seat Wednesday, after weeks of fruitless attempts from opposition MPs to find out the true identity of “the other Randy.”

Stephen Anderson, who co-founded Global Health Imports with Boissonnault at the start of the pandemic in 2020, and Kirsten Poon, a lobbyist with business ties to the minister, will be appearing before the House of Commons ethics committee for an hour. At issue is whether Boissonnault remained an active participant in the medical supply business he co-owned after he was appointed to cabinet, which would have violated ethics rules.

Article content

Poon is scheduled to appear at the committee virtually, but Anderson is expected to testify in person.

Committees usually do not meet during the summer, but Conservatives and the NDP said that Boissonnault’s prior appearance at committee on his business dealings have left them with more questions than answers.

“We’ve been looking to find out information that, frankly… Boissonnault has refused to provide, and he has demonstrated himself to be not forthcoming on matters that are certainly in the public interest,” said Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett.

The NDP’s Matthew Green said in a statement there is “clearly more for the committee to study in the minister’s business dealings” and that MPs “have a responsibility to do the work and ensure accountability for Canadians.”

Boissonnault came into politics claiming to be a successful entrepreneur and a journalist and political commentator.

Article content

Article content

But in recent months, investigative reporting by Global News uncovered some ethical concerns over Boissonnault’s business links to Anderson and Poon, while Quebec-based newspaper Le Devoir recently cast doubts on Boissonnault’s claim that he worked as a journalist.

Global News obtained text messages showing that Anderson, who co-owned Global Health Imports with Boissonnault, had passed along an urgent message from a certain “Randy” to the owner of a personal protective equipment company for a wire transfer of $500,000 to secure a shipment.

The exchange was dated Sept. 8, 2022, which is almost a year after Boissonnault was first sworn in cabinet as associate minister of finance and of tourism. Last summer, he became minister of employment, workforce development and official languages.

The Conflict of Interest Act prohibits public office holders from engaging in certain outside activities, including managing or operating a business or commercial activity. Any business holdings are required to be divested or put into a blind trust. Boissonnault’s spokesperson told Global News he surrendered his shares in the company last month.

Article content

For weeks, the Conservatives have been sharing memes about “the other Randy,” joking that it is in fact Boissonnault with fake glasses and a mustache. Their latest mockery on Tuesday involved a play on the popular internet parody song “Looking for a Man in Finance.”

Boissonnault has denied that he is the “Randy” mentioned in the text message, and Anderson has never unveiled the true identity of the individual he was corresponding with.

“It seems incredible that the two gentlemen who collectively (owned) 100 per cent of the company are unable to share with us the last name or give us any indication of who the other Randy is,” said Barrett in an interview.

Poon took over Boissonnault’s small consulting business, Xennex Venture Catalysts, after he was re-elected in 2021, and transferred the company’s sole registered client, the Edmonton Regional Airports Authority, to her own small business, Navis Group.

She went on to lobby six political departments in 2021 and 2022, including the Department of Finance where Boissonnault was associate minister, and helped win $110 million in federal grants for Edmonton International Airport.

Article content

Boissonnault has said that he “in no way facilitated such meetings” and that any revenue he has received from Navis Group was for work he did while he was a private citizen between 2019 and 2021 and was disclosed to the ethics commissioner.

To date, the ethics commissioner has said there are no grounds to investigate the minister further.

In a letter dated June 25, Konrad von Finckenstein said he was satisfied that Boissonnault had had no contact with Anderson regarding their medical supply company after reviewing call logs from his three devices and screenshots of messages exchanged that date.

Barrett said the committee has received some phone records from Boissonnault but has still not received Anderson’s phone records.

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

Get more deep-dive National Post political coverage and analysis in your inbox with the Political Hack newsletter, where Ottawa bureau chief Stuart Thomson and political analyst Tasha Kheiriddin get at what’s really going on behind the scenes on Parliament Hill every Wednesday and Friday, exclusively for subscribers. Sign up here.

Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark nationalpost.com and sign up for our politics newsletter, First Reading, here.

Article content