A former business partner of Liberal cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault failed to comply with a House of Commons order to turn over records of his phone calls and texts by Friday.
While Anderson provided some emails, Global News was also unable to verify that Anderson shared with the committee’s clerk the name of the person he referred to as “Randy” in text messages.
The parliamentary ethics committee demanded on Wednesday that Stephen Anderson, who once co-owned the medical supply business Global Health Imports (GHI) with Boissonnault, produce the name along with phone records, text messages, instant messages and other documents by noon on July 19.
This information would allow committee members to verify the truth of Anderson’s testimony before the committee on Wednesday. They did not ask for emails.
Anderson is chief operating officer of GHI. He told the assembled MPs that Employment Minister Boissonnault did not instruct him on how to run the business in September 2022, when Anderson sent the text messages referring to “Randy.”
While MPs are permitted to own shares in companies, which Boissonnault did until last month, they cannot be involved in their businesses’ operations without breaching conflict-of-interest laws.
The entrepreneur told the MPs, who had gathered in Ottawa during Parliament’s summer recess to meet with him, that 10 text messages about “Randy” he sent to a client between Sept. 6 and 8, 2022, were the result of an “unfortunate autocorrect.”
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Anderson also said he had lied to a Global News reporter who asked about the messages, telling her that they referred to another Randy and not Boissonnault.
“I don’t think I want to get into … what you think an ‘autocorrect’ is,” Conservative MP Michael Barrett said to Anderson during Wednesday’s committee meeting, “This isn’t that.”
Anderson told Global News on Friday that he had sent the committee clerk emails in the afternoon, but that he needed more time to gather phone records from his provider.
He did not respond to Global News’ question about why the real name of the person he referred to as “Randy” was not visible in his correspondence with the clerk. He did not send Global News copies of the attachments to the messages.
“We have sent all information except what was missing from Bell Mobility,” he wrote.
“The phone records for all of September 2022 are longer than 18 months back and this has been requested from Bell,” he explained. He requested the phone records yesterday, he added.
Anderson is “in contempt” of the parliamentary committee’s order, according to Barrett. Legal scholars consulted by Global News agreed. Committee members first requested the records in June.
The ethics committee launched its inquiry in May, when Global News investigations revealed a series of controversies surrounding GHI, including a series of lawsuits and nearly $8 million in court-ordered debts. Further reporting has revealed a civil allegation of fraud against Anderson, a fire at the company’s warehouse started by three arsonists, and Anderson’s business ties to a woman who was detained in a massive cocaine bust in 2022.
If Anderson does not produce the records and name, the omission will be escalated to the House of Commons when Parliament resumes in September.
Barrett emphasized that failures to respond to orders from parliamentary committees are historically rare.
Boissonnault’s spokesperson, Alice Hansen, said, “Mr. Anderson should be honest with the committee regarding any possible use of the minister’s name without his consent and we encourage him to submit any records requested.”
“Minister Boissonnault gave all of his records to both the Ethics Commissioner and the Committee. These records show there was no communication with Mr. Anderson and he was not involved in this matter.
“This is why the minister was cleared by the ethics commissioner, twice,” she wrote.
With the committee waiting for the missing information, questions about the minister’s ability to lead now hang in the balance, said federal NDP leader Jagmeet Singh.
The minister “is showing a lack of judgment,” Singh said, explaining that this “really raises questions about his ethics.”
“If you’re a minister, you have to distance yourself from your previous business,” he said. “It looks like he has not done that.”
With files from Krista Hessey.