Boissonnault out of cabinet after shifting claims about Indigenous heritage

Alberta MP Randy Boissonnault has resigned from cabinet amid allegations about his business dealings and criticism of his shifting claims about his Indigenous ancestry.

The prime minister and MP Randy Boissonnault have agreed that Mr. Boissonnault will step away from cabinet effective immediately. Mr. Boissonnault will focus on clearing the allegations made against him, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said in a statement.

Veterans Affairs Minister Ginette Petitpas Taylor will temporarily assume responsibility for Boissonnault’s employment and workforce development portfolio and official languages.

WATCH: Trudeau says Randy Boissonnault has stepped down from cabinet

Trudeau says Randy Boissonnault has stepped down from cabinet

Randy Boissonnault has resigned from cabinet amid controversy over his business ties and claims of Indigenous heritage. During question period, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre criticized Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for having stood up for the now former Employment Minister.

Boissonnault has been at the centre of controversy for months.

The House of Commons ethics committee has been probing whether Boissonnault continued to work with one of his former businesses after joining Trudeau’s cabinet.

That business — Global Health Imports (GHI), a medical supplies company he co-founded at the outset of the pandemic — has bid on federal contracts in the past.

Some text messages released through legal proceedings show Boissonnault’s former business partner, Stephen Anderson, referring to a person named Randy in business conversations with associates, prompting questions about whether Anderson was still consulting Boissonnault on business matters while he sat as a member of Trudeau’s cabinet.

It would be a serious breach of the ethics law for a sitting cabinet minister to run a business that’s also seeking federal work.

Boissonnault has denied having any involvement in the business since he was re-elected in 2021. He has accused Anderson of using his name without his consent to gain influence. He has denied being the Randy cited in Anderson’s text messages.

The story took a turn earlier this month when the National Post reported that Boissonnault’s former company, GHI, claimed to be Indigenous-owned when bidding for a federal contract in 2020.

Last week, Boissonnault apologized for shifting claims about the Indigenous heritage of some family members.

While the Liberal Party referred to him several years ago as one of their caucus’s elected Indigenous members, Boissonnault has said since he never clicked any box on any form with the party.

Boissonnault has said he stopped sitting with the Liberal Indigenous caucus when he joined cabinet in 2021. He said that when he sat with that caucus previously, it was in the role of an ally.

Boissonnault has referred to his adoptive great-grandmother repeatedly in public statements as a full-blooded Cree woman. He was given a Cree name in 2021, spoke Cree at least twice in parliamentary proceedings and self-identified as an non-status adopted Cree.

His office has since clarified that his adoptive great-grandmother’s family in fact had Metis heritage, and Boissonnault’s past statements about Cree ancestry were based on what he believed to be accurate his whole life.

This article is republished from RCI.