Tories demand Liberal minister explain ‘Indigenous’ claims

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OTTAWA – Conservatives say federal Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault must answer questions about why a company that belonged to him said it was Indigenous-owned while bidding on federal contracts.

“It’s highly suspicious at best. But at worst, it’s fraud,” Conservative ethics critic Michael Barrett told the Commons ethics committee Thursday.

“He shouldn’t be a minister, he should have been fired long ago as a minister. He has no place sitting in the cabinet given his record,” Conservative MP Michael Cooper added.

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Barrett was responding to revelations Thursday in the National Post that Global Health Imports (GHI), a company co-owned by Boissonnault, had twice bid for federal government medical-supply contracts during the pandemic while declaring itself “a wholly owned Indigenous and LGBTQ Company” and “Aboriginal.” There are federal procurement programs that favour Indigenous-owned suppliers.

Those particular bids were unsuccessful, but GHI did win a government contract in which the company did not identify itself as Indigenous.

Boissonnault has appeared to make contradictory statements about his heritage over the years, at times alternating between saying he is Indigenous, and white.

Boissonnault’s spokesperson told National Post that his former business partner and GHI co-owner, Stephen Anderson, “had full responsibility for the bids.”

Boissonnault has not responded to National Post’s questions about which First Nations, Métis or Inuit groups he belonged to.

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Barrett said Boissonnault needs to explain himself, all the while accusing the minister of being untrustworthy.

“It’s incumbent on him that he answers for this to Canadians, to Parliament,” Barrett said in an interview.

“But the other problem is that you can’t believe anything that he says, because he’s been demonstrated to be untruthful with his statements that he’s made before (Commons) committee,” he added.

In response to Conservative questions in the House, Liberal MP Charles Sousa said the government is cracking down on ineligible companies trying to obtain contracts by claiming to be Indigenous-owned.

“The (National Post) article confirms that the company in question has never received any contracts as an Indigenous business and has never been listed on the Indigenous business directory,” Sousa said.

Boissonnault has faced intense scrutiny over his involvement in GHI, a personal protective equipment distributor he co-founded with Anderson at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Questions have risen as to whether he remained involved in the business after he was re-elected for the Liberals in 2021 and then appointed to cabinet. Ministers are prohibited from being involved in a company’s operations under the Conflict of Interest Act.

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Text messages sent by Anderson in 2022 and obtained by Global News make frequent reference to speaking to a “Randy” about GHI dealings.

Anderson first told reporters he was referring to another “Randy,” then admitted he lied and that the second Randy didn’t exist, and instead blamed his phone’s “autocorrect” feature for adding the word Randy. This despite the name appearing frequently in multiple text conversations.

The minister has repeatedly said that the “Randy” in question is not him.

Earlier this year, Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein opened and closed two probes into the affair, noting in two letters to the minister that an “absence of any evidence giving me a reason to believe you may have been operating or managing GHI in contravention of (the Conflict of Interest Act).”

At the Commons ethics committee, Liberal MP Brenda Shanahan said “Mr. Anderson has apparently been playing fast and loose with using the name of Mr. Boissonnault in his business dealings.”

Boissonnault has distanced himself from GHI since the Randy texts came to light, telling the parliamentary ethics committee recently that he has “surrendered” his GHI shares.

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Anderson is also facing accusations of violating MPs’ parliamentary privilege by failing to provide the committee with phone records, text messages and phone logs from 2022.

On Thursday, Barrett tabled more apparent texts from Anderson from 2022 referring to Randy as being involved in GHI that have not previously been made public. The Conservatives tabled a motion to have Boissonnault testify again before the committee to answer for the new allegations. Boissonnault last testified in September and denied he was the Randy in question.

National Post, with additional reporting by Patti Sonntag

cnardi@postmedia.com

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