Randy Boissonnault out of cabinet amid business dealings controversy

Randy Boissonnault is out of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet after months of controversy surrounding his former medical supply business.

In a brief statement Wednesday, Trudeau said Boissonnault “agreed … (to) step away from cabinet effective immediately.”

“Mr. Boissonnault will focus on clearing the allegations made against him,” Trudeau’s office said.

Those allegations, first reported by Global News, involve Boissonnault’s former business Global Health Imports, co-founded with Stephen Anderson in early 2020 after Boissonnault lost his seat in the 2019 election.

Global News reported on Tuesday that Edmonton police are now investigating an allegation of fraud made against GHI and Anderson.

2:38 Trudeau offers words of support to embattled minister facing calls to resign

Boissonnault is not named in any lawsuits regarding GHI, and has distanced himself from the company and Anderson.

The Alberta MP said he resigned from the company in the fall of 2021, after he was re-elected and appointed to Trudeau’s cabinet. He retained a 50 per cent stake in the company until June 2024.

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Global News’ investigations that month revealed GHI’s legal troubles, and later text messages from Anderson sent in 2022 suggesting he was in touch with ‘Randy’ in relation to business deals. At the time of the text messages, Boissonnault was a sitting cabinet minister.

Boissonnault denied he was the ‘Randy’ Anderson was referencing in the texts. That led to months of ridicule from the Opposition Conservatives, demanding to know who “the Other Randy” involved in Anderson’s business was.

The troubles continued for Boissonnault last week, after he had to apologize for misrepresenting himself as having Indigenous heritage.

Boissonnault previously referred to himself as a “non-status adopted Cree” and said his great-grandmother was a “full-blooded Cree woman.”

He said he’d confirm his great-grandmother’s status, but his mother and brother are citizens of the Métis Nation of Alberta.

“I apologize if that particular way of referring to myself – I apologize that it was inaccurate,” Boissonnault said at an Edmonton event on Nov. 15.

5:32 Poilievre, Conservative MPs demand Trudeau fire Boissonnault for Indigenous identity claims

Earlier in the day, when asked by reporters if he still had confidence in Boissonnault, Trudeau walked by with a smile and a nod.

In question period, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre suggested Trudeau “knew” that Boissonnault was “directing his business illegally from inside cabinet.”

“He knew the minister had claimed there was another Randy when there was no other Randy. He knew the minister had falsely claimed to be Indigenous … and yet he stood by him up until yesterday,” Poilievre charged.

“Why is it that he always stands up for corruption on his own side?”

Trudeau repeated that Boissonnault was stepping down to “focus on clearing these allegations” before pivoting to attack Poilievre for allegedly “muzzling” Conservative MPs.

More to come.

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