Boissonnault says he came up with ‘non-status adopted Cree’ term
Edmonton Centre MP Randy Boissonnault told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that he came up with the term “non-status adopted Cree,” contradicting previous statements where he said an Indigenous researcher provided him with the identifier.
The former cabinet minister’s office claimed in mid-November that the term was “explained to him by an Indigenous researcher” while Boissonnault, who was adopted, researched his family lineage.
“It was an explanation of his adoptive family’s Indigenous history as they understood it at the time,” Alice Hansen, Boissonnault’s director of communications, wrote in a statement on Nov. 13.
But at a House of Commons committee Thursday morning, Boissonnault said he created the term himself.
“I came up with the term ‘non-status adopted Cree’ because I thought it would honour my family. And I thought it would indicate very clearly no status,” Boissonnault said.
The Indigenous researcher Boissonnault previously referred to, University of Toronto professor Chadwick Cowie, told Global News he did not research Boissonnault’s family lineage. Cowie did say, however, he had a conversation with Boissonnault “a couple of times” between 2013 and 2015.
In an interview with the National Post last month, Cowie said he did not give Boissonnault the term ‘non-status adopted Cree’.
“I would have worded it differently,” Cowie said to the Post. “I would have said that he was adopted to a family that had Cree lineage.”
Complicating matters further, Boissonnault then said his adoptive mother and brother became citizens of the Métis Nation of Alberta earlier this year, but that he identified has always identified as white.
Boissonnault’s shifting description of his family’s lineage, as well as revelations that a medical supply business he co-founded in 2020 was under criminal investigation, led him to step down from cabinet on Nov. 20. He was previously minister of employment.
Boissonnault maintains he has had nothing to do with the company under investigation, Global Health Imports (GHI), since his re-election in the fall of 2021. Edmonton police are investigating allegations that GHI defrauded a U.S. company of around $350,000 in 2022, about a year after Boissonnault said he left the company.
Boissonnault told the committee on Thursday that he did not mislead the House of Commons or Canadians and never implied he had Indigenous “status.”
The term ‘non-status adopted Cree’ “ensured that I claimed no Indigenous status for myself while also honouring the Indigenous heritage of the family who adopted and raised me,” Boissonnault, who was appearing virtually, told the committee.
“I recognize the ways in which I described my heritage have not always been as accurate as they could have been…for this, I sincerely apologize,” he said.
His explanation did little to satisfy the opposition Conservatives, including Michael Cooper, who was forced to withdraw comments after calling Boissonnault a “liar.” Tory MP Garnett Genuis accused Boissonnault of using lawyer language to distract from previous comments that suggested the Liberal MP had Indigenous heritage.
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“A person might claim to be Indigenous without claiming Indigenous status. So let’s get around the lawyerly formulation here and ask you the core question,” Genuis said.
“Have you ever claimed to be Indigenous?”
“Mr. Genuis, I’m not Indigenous and I’ve never claimed to be Indigenous or to have Indigenous status,” Boissonnault responded.
When asked by NDP MP Lori Idlout which Cree Nation his grandmother belonged to, Boissonnault said he didn’t know.
“I grew up understanding that my grandmother was Cree and I didn’t question my family about which nation,” he said.
“We didn’t talk about it a lot, but I knew growing up with my great-grandmother, she wasn’t part of a nation. She married a settler and so there was no First Nation that she was connected to.”
Idlout, who is Inuit, accused Boissonnault of race shifting and questioned why others would have thought to refer to him as Indigenous.
Questions about Boissonnault’s adoptive family’s ancestry surfaced in November after the National Post reported his former GHI business partner, Stephen Anderson, claimed the company they co-owned was “wholly Indigenous owned” when bidding on federal contracts in 2020.
GHI was not awarded the contracts, which Boissonnault said indicated “the current safeguards” meant to prevent companies from falsely claiming Indigeneity to win contracts “worked correctly.”
He placed the blame for that claim squarely at Anderson’s feet, telling the committee that he believed Anderson had mischaracterized his family’s heritage to advance his own interests.
“I believe (Anderson) has conducted himself unethically and may have misled many people,” Boissonnault said.
The Liberal party also claimed Boissonnault was Indigenous when it promoted its new Indigenous Caucus in 2016.
“If ever I have seen somebody refer to me as an Indigenous person, I’ve gone to great lengths to correct that,” Boissonnault said in response to NDP MP Idlout.
Boissonnault said he acted to remove himself from a list of Indigenous candidates that the Liberal party released in 2019.
“When I realized that I was on that list, I called the party and we had that mistake corrected,” he said
The Liberal party also corrected a media report from 2016 that suggested Boissonnault was Indigenous. However, Tory MP Genuis pointed out an Instagram post, which shows a photo of Boissonnault alongside a caption celebrating “the largest number of Indigenous MPs” ever elected, remains up today.
Boissonnault said he joined the Liberal Indigenous Caucus as an ally, an assertion backed up by several members of the group, past and present.
After describing the “difficult time” he and his family have had in light of media reports questioning the credibility of his family’s claims of Indigenous heritage, Boissonnault spent the rest of his opening statement lamenting his decision to go into business with Anderson.
Boissonnault formed GHI with Anderson in 2020 at the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Just months before, he had lost his Edmonton Centre seat in the 2019 federal election.
When he was re-elected in 2021, Boissonnault said he resigned from the company, as is required by ethics laws. He remained a 50 per cent shareholder, which is allowed.
Earlier this year, a series of Global News investigations revealed GHI’s legal troubles, including several civil allegations of fraud, and later text messages Anderson sent in 2022 suggesting he was seeking advice from “Randy” on business deals. At the time of the text messages, Boissonnault was a sitting cabinet minister.
Ethics rules forbid ministers from managing or operating private companies while in office, however, they are allowed to own shares. Canada’s ethics commissioner looked into the texts twice and decided not to launch a formal investigation, stating he found no evidence Boissonnault contravened ethics laws.
Boissonnault is not named in any of lawsuits against GHI and Anderson. He also denies he is the ‘Randy’ mentioned in the text messages.
Anderson, GHI’s chief operating officer, denies the allegations of civil fraud, which remain unproven before the courts.
“After I left in the fall of 2021, GHI continued as a company under the exclusive direction and control of Mr. Anderson. I should never have placed my trust in him as a partner,” Boissonnault said.
“His alleged actions have seriously harmed my reputation,” he said, adding he is considering taking legal action against him.
Anderson’s own testimony before the House ethics committee in July left MPs in disbelief after he explained he typed ‘Randy’ nine times in texts to a client as a result of auto-correct. Anderson refused to tell the committee who he meant to refer to.
“Despite ample time and opportunity to explain himself, including at the ethics committee, (Anderson) has refused to do the right thing and come clean. He has refused to admit that he has been using my name without my knowledge,” Boissonnault said.
Anderson is expected to face a motion to be found in contempt of Parliament for refusing to answer questions and turn over documents ordered by the committee.
— With files from Alex Boutilier
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