Alberta MP Randy Boissonneau has resigned from his cabinet amid allegations about his business dealings and criticism over his changing claims about his Indigenous ancestry.
“The Prime Minister and MP Randy Boissonneau have agreed that Mr. Boissonneau will resign from his cabinet with immediate effect. Mr. Boissonneau will focus on clearing the allegations against him,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s spokesperson said in a statement.
Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor will temporarily assume responsibility for Boissonneau’s employment and workforce development portfolio and official languages.
Randy Boissonneau has resigned from the cabinet amid controversy over business ties and claims to indigenous heritage. During a question session, Conservative Party leader Pierre Poièvre criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for expressing support for the former employment minister.
Mr. Boissonneau has been at the center of controversy for several months.
The House of Commons Ethics Committee is investigating whether Mr. Boissonneau continued to work with one of his former businesses after joining Trudeau’s cabinet.
That company, Global Health Imports (GHI), a medical supplies company he co-founded early in the pandemic, has bid on federal contracts in the past.
Some text messages released through legal proceedings show Boissonneau’s former business partner, Stephen Anderson, referring to someone named “Randy” in business conversations with colleagues. questions about whether Mr. Anderson consulted Mr. Boissonneau on business matters during his tenure as Prime Minister Trudeau’s MP. cabinet.
It is a serious violation of ethics laws for a sitting Cabinet member to run a company that is also seeking federal employment.
Since being re-elected in 2021, Boissonneau has denied any involvement in the business and has accused Anderson of using his name without his consent to gain influence. He denied being the “Randy” quoted in Anderson’s text messages.
Things took a turn earlier this month when the National Post reported that Boissonneau’s former company, GHI, claimed to be “Indigenous-owned” when bidding for federal contracts in 2020.
Mr Boissonneau last week apologized for changing his claims about some families’ Indigenous heritage.
The Liberal Party named Boissonneau one of its caucus-elected Indigenous members several years ago, but Boissonneau has since said he has “never clicked any form of a box” with the party. .
Boissonneau said he stopped sitting on the Free and Indigenous Caucus when he joined cabinet in 2021. He said he acted as an ally when he previously sat with the party’s caucus.
Boissonneau has repeatedly referred to her adoptive great-grandmother in public as a “full-blooded” Cree woman. He was given a Cree name in 2021, spoke Cree at least twice during parliamentary proceedings, and self-identified as a “non-status adopted Cree.”
His office later confirmed that his adoptive great-grandmother’s family was indeed of Métis descent and that Boissonneau’s past statements about his Cree ancestry were “something he believed throughout his life to be accurate.” It was revealed that it is based on
