Ethics commissioner to look into minister’s dealings with his company

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OTTAWA — Ethics commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein said he would take a further look into private text messages sent in 2022 by a mysterious “Randy” that raise questions about Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s dealings with a former business partner a year after he joined the federal cabinet.

Speaking at the House of Commons ethics committee, Boissonnault repeatedly denied that he is “the Randy in question” and said that he has had no operational role in the company he co-founded since he was re-elected in 2021 — even though he still owns half of the shares in a numbered company that he disclosed to the ethics commissioner.

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The text messages, obtained by Global News, show that Stephen Anderson, co-founder of Global Health Imports (GHI) with Boissonnault in 2020, transferred an urgent message from a certain “Randy” to Malvina Ghaoui, principal of a personal protective equipment company, to send a wire transfer of $500,000 to secure a large shipment of nitrile gloves.

“Anderson, it’s 13:14 MST and 15:14 EST it literally takes 10 seconds to complete a transfer, I am telling you we are NOT ALLOCATING like this, please reach out and see what the reason is now, you assured me this morning this was done first thing; and allowed you to hold this stock today; it’s midday and nothing is completed,” reads the text.

The message ends by telling Anderson to be ready in 15 minutes for a “partner call.” Anderson followed up with Ghaoui 30 minutes later, telling her that he spoke with “Randy” and other GHI employees who agreed to wait a little bit longer for the wire transfer.

Those exchanges were 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.

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Anderson told Global News that the “Randy” referred to in the text messages was not Boissonnault, but another employee who was “head of logistics.” He declined to share that employee’s full name. A representative for Ghaoui however said it was her understanding that Anderson was referring to Boissonnault in the exchange.

The Conflict of Interest Act requires cabinet ministers to divest their controlled assets, either by selling them or placing them in a blind trust, within 120 days of their appointment. It also forbids them of having “any power of management or control over the trust assets.”

Boissonnault would be breaking the law if he was found to have been actively engaged with GHI after his appointment.

Von Finckenstein later told MPs that this information came as “complete news” to him and that “it obviously raises some serious implications if the story is true.”

“At this point in time, I am really caught by surprise. I didn’t know about it until I read it this morning. I don’t know what to say. I heard the minister’s testimony. I think it would be absolutely irresponsible to make a premature a decision as to what we’re going to do.”

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“Clearly, we will look into this and if … there’s more to it, there is substance to it, there may be contraventions,” he added. “I have the capacity to self-initiate another inquiry.”

Opposition MPs put their interrogation skills to the test on Tuesday as they attempted to prove that Boissonnault might in fact be the “Randy” in the text messages in 2022.

“You have a 50 per cent stake in the company … And you mean to tell me that you have no idea out of a handful of people, if not you, who the other Randy is. Are you serious?” asked Conservative MP Michael Cooper.

Boissonnault replied that he has had no operational involvement in GHI since he was re-elected, nor is he allowed to know about the operation of this company “because it is not permitted by the ethics commissioner.”

Cooper continued by analyzing the Eastern time zone mentioned in the message sent by “Randy,” noting that it happens to be the same time zone as Ottawa.

“Just another coincidence, Randy?” he asked.

Boissonnault replied that he had no idea because he had not seen those text messages.

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Liberal MP Anthony Housefather later noted that Sept. 8, 2022, was the date that Queen Elizabeth II died, and it also happened to be during a cabinet retreat in Vancouver on Pacific standard time. The event led to ministers scrambling to find black clothes.

Housefather said that the idea of Boissonnault “leaving a cabinet retreat to deal with an issue like this strikes me as even more fanciful.”

His colleague Pam Damoff said she was “really disheartened” to see the Conservatives “go on a witch hunt against a Minister of the Crown” instead of finishing the ethics committee’s study on the impact of misinformation and disinformation on MPs.

NDP MP Matthew Green said this is not simply a “Conservative witch hunt” and that he was not convinced by Boissonnault’s arguments that he is not the mysterious “Randy.”

“I will tell you from my perspective, as a New Democrat, this doesn’t pass the sniff test.”

National Post
calevesque@postmedia.com

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