Liberal cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault’s former business partner stunned MPs Wednesday by claiming multiple text messages referring to business dealings with “Randy” were the result of an autocorrect error.
The House of Commons’ ethics committee is probing Boissonnault’s relationship with Global Health Imports (GHI), a company he co-founded with Edmonton entrepreneur Stephen Anderson before he was re-elected as a Liberal MP in 2021.
Global News reported that Anderson allegedly sent a series of text messages referring to a partner named “Randy” in September 2022 – after Boissonnault was sworn in as a Liberal cabinet minister, and a year after he said he “ceased active involvement” with the company.
Boissonnault held shares in GHI, which he was legally allowed to do, until disposing of them two weeks ago.
Conflict of interest laws prohibited elected officials from operating or managing private businesses while in office.
A series of text messages from Anderson between Sept. 6 and Sept. 8, 2022, reference a business partner named “Randy” working with GHI, and suggested that “Randy” was working out of a Vancouver office on that day.
“With regards to the infamous text message featured by a Global News story, the other Randy, I hope members of the committee can understand that this was an unfortunate autocorrect suggestion,” Anderson told MPs.
Opposition MPs were not buying Anderson’s autocorrect explanation, at times openly accusing him of lying and laughing during his testimony.
Conservative MP Michael Barrett pointed out that Anderson’s text messages referenced “Randy” nine times over two days, casting doubt on the autocorrect explanation.
“I think that (Anderson’s) concerned about naming Randy Boissonnault as the other Randy that’s involved because it would be damaging to Randy Boissonnault’s reputation and would be damaging to his ability to continue to serve in Justin Trudeau’s cabinet,” Barrett told reporters after the meeting.
“If I was Mr. Boissonnault I’d also be afraid of a conversation happening in public, and I think that would damage his reputation,” NDP MP Matthew Green said.
“Unfortunately for Mr. Anderson, he doesn’t get to pick and choose … when and where he’s going to tell the truth.”
Anderson ignored reporters’ multiple questions as he walked from the committee room to an elevator.
He told MPs that he lied to Global News when first contacted about the text messages, explaining that he had “panicked” and said it was another business partner named “Randy.” He also referred to the other Randy as a woman during his testimony, but refused to identity them.
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In a statement released after the hearing, Boissonnault’s office said the minister was “deeply troubled and disappointed” by Anderson’s testimony.
“If Mr. Anderson has subsequently been using my name without my consent to gain influence, he should simply explain that to the committee,” the statement read.
During his own testimony last month, Boissonnault repeatedly said he was not the “Randy” referenced in the text messages and that he had had no “operational role” at GHI since joining cabinet in 2021.
As a result, Boissonnault argued, he could not answer questions about who the company’s partners were in 2022 and who the other “Randy” allegedly employed at GHI is.
Boissonnault’s office added Wednesday that he has had “no communication” with Anderson since Global News broke the story about Anderson’s text messages, and no members of his staff helped Anderson prepare for his committee testimony.
“I have always conducted myself in an ethical manner that follows the spirit and the letter of those (ethics) rules,” Boissonnault told the ethics committee in his testimony last month.
At the time of the text exchange, which Global News first reported in June, Boissonnault was tourism minister and associate finance minister.
Boissonnault, who has since been promoted to employment minister, founded GHI with Anderson during the first weeks of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Boissonnault ran the company alongside Anderson until he re-entered politics the following year.
The MP for Edmonton Centre, Boissonnault said he resigned from his position as partner and director when he won back his seat in September 2021.
Corporate documents show that he remained a 50 per cent shareholder until about two weeks ago, when he disposed of his shares.
In text messages sent on Sept. 8, 2022, Anderson told one of GHI’s buyers that “Randy” had asked for a “partner call” to discuss a deposit the buyer was supposed to wire to GHI. In another text sent about 30 minutes later, Anderson told the buyer he had spoken to “Randy” and two other GHI employees.
The buyer, Malvina Ghaoui of The Ghaoui Group, a California-based personal protective equipment procurement company, is now suing Anderson and the two other GHI employees, Felix Papineau and Shawna Parker, over allegations of fraud.
Boissonnault is not named in the suit.
The Ghaoui Group alleges in court documents that Anderson misled Ghaoui Group into selling a large shipment of nitrile gloves and then did not return the company’s nearly $500,000 deposit.
All three GHI employees deny the allegations of fraud.
In court documents, Anderson alleges that Ghaoui ordered the wrong type of gloves on behalf of her buyer and then pulled out of the deal when she realized the mistake. Because Ghaoui Group didn’t hold up its end of the transaction, Anderson argues in a sworn affidavit, GHI was entitled to keep the deposit.
The details of the case are unproven and still before the courts.
Global News reporters have spoken with several of GHI’s suppliers and owners of businesses that neighbour GHI’s Edmonton warehouse. No one interviewed has heard of another employee named “Randy” other than Boissonnault.
NDP MP Matthew Green, a member of the committee, told Global News on Monday that he felt Anderson should testify after Boissonnault’s committee appearance on June 4, which he said left him with more questions than answers.
“Minister Boissonnault’s testimony could have cleared the air on a lot of questions.… Unfortunately, his testimony didn’t do that,” Green said.
Following Global’s reporting on the texts and Boissonnault’s testimony, Canada’s ethics commissioner launched a preliminary probe into the minister. In the days after that announcement, committee members unanimously passed a motion inviting Anderson to appear before the committee and for him and Boissonnault to turn over their phone records for Sept. 8, 2022.
The Edmonton Centre MP handed over phone records for his three devices as well as screenshots from messaging apps to the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner’s office. In a letter to Boissonnault on June 25, ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein wrote that he does not intend to launch a formal investigation.
“I no longer have concerns that you may have contravened your obligations under the (Conflict of Interest Act) and will take no further action at this time,” von Finckenstein wrote.
At the end of Wednesday’s hearing, members of the ethics committee voted to demand more answers and records from Anderson regarding the “other Randy,” and gave the Edmonton entrepreneur until Friday at noon to turn over the documents.
The committee also voted to call Boissonnault back for another hour of testimony in light of Anderson’s appearance. That meeting is expected to take place in September when the House of Commons returns from its summer hiatus.
