Evidence of meeting #139 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was anderson.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you, Chair. I really appreciate your co-operation here.
Minister Boissonnault has appeared twice in this committee. He has answered quite disrespectful questions from the opposition parties and has done so openly. I'm not sure what more the opposition members want to hear from him.
Then the organization that's listed—I'm sorry; I don't have the motion in front of me—and the two witnesses from that organization had nothing to do with Minister Boissonnault. I'm not sure why they're listed.
In the past week I put forward a motion for this committee to contemplate how food services and delivery services are using Canadians' data and using surcharges. Today I wanted to present a motion on how we can protect Canadians through the hotel sector from human trafficking. I have all of these issues that my constituents are talking to me about, yet I get to sit here and talk about something that has been hashed out three times by the Ethics Commissioner. He said, every single time, that there's nothing to investigate here, yet here we are being a kangaroo court. Why? To me it makes no sense at all, when there are so many important issues for our committee to look into, for us to investigate—if that's the right word—and for us to review and provide relevant recommendations on to the government.
Chair, I don't even know when the last time was that we tabled a report from this committee. We have a lot of work to do, and for us to sit here and....
Conservative
Liberal
Iqra Khalid Liberal Mississauga—Erin Mills, ON
Thank you. I appreciate that, Chair.
For us to sit here and contemplate how we are going to get somebody in a “gotcha” moment when the Ethics Commissioner himself has said that there is no gotcha moment.... I'm not sure why we are wasting the very important resources of the House. I'm not sure why we are wasting the time of the 50 people that are here in this room discussing this when we could be discussing some really significant issues that actually impact Canadians.
It's one thing to say that we need to look into this, that we need to make sure that everything was done by the book, that everything is right and that we have the right people coming before this committee to reassure Canadians that the issue is taken care of. It's another issue entirely to be badgering.
Three times the Ethics Commissioner said that there is no investigation here. There's nothing to investigate. Three times he said that, yet the Conservatives find it to be their hobby and their top priority to continually badger and harass the Ethics Commissioner into going at this issue again and again. They leverage the important resources of this committee to do that when there are so many important issues for us to be diving into. There are so many important issues for us to review, to provide recommendations on, to hear from witnesses on and to hear from experts on, yet we sit here so the Conservatives can get clips, so they can raise money off of their little fundraising pages with the little social media clickbait that they love to project.
It's unfortunate, Chair. I really wish that the party opposite, with their allies, the Bloc and the NDP, had given more consideration to government resources and to ensuring that we are doing right by this committee's mandate and ensuring that we are actually trying to help Canadians at the end of the day.
Chair, I came into this meeting with some good faith that I would be able to move forward on a motion to look into how data collection by the hotel industry and their collaboration with law enforcement can help human trafficking victims. What I've done here instead is sit and rehash something that has been completely figured out by the Ethics Commissioner three times over.
I am absolutely baffled as to how and why we got to this point. I think we can do better, Chair. I really think that we can do better. I think that we can put this matter aside and move on to matters that actually help Canadians and that help young women who are being trafficked every day in my riding, for example, and all across Canada.
At this point, though, I'd like to move an amendment to this motion. Ms. Ghaoui has already expressed an interest in appearing at this committee, so there's no reason for her to be included on the witness list that Mr. Barrett has presented.
I seek to amend the motion by removing Ms. Ghaoui's name from the motion. She is going to come before us anyway. It doesn't make sense for us to be redundant.
I'll park my comments there, Chair. I'd like to be added to the bottom of your speaking list again.
Thank you.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Ms. Khalid.
There is an amendment on the floor to remove Ms. Ghaoui from the the list.
Go ahead on the amendment, Mr. Green.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
I do appreciate opening up discussion around witnesses.
I talked about this sordid tale. In my estimation, this is a made-for-TV movie, or I guess now a Netflix series, perhaps, given the twists and turns.
I remember the revelations of Mr. Anderson. Much to the chagrin of the Conservatives, who filibustered as though we're part of some cover-up, they will recall, as will the Hansard, that it was in fact my line of questioning that finally got him to admit that indeed there was no other Randy. I recall at that meeting being dumbfounded that there were so many sordid twists and turns out of his testimony, and the one thing that never came to light was this other connection to a massive cocaine smuggling operation.
I reference a Global News article so that people watching don't get confused about my earlier references to this. This is so twisted that we never actually got to this part, which is wild. Back in July 16, 2024, the headline reads “Boissonnault's former business partner linked to woman detained in Dominican Republic cocaine bust”:
Liberal Cabinet Minister Randy Boissonnault's former partner in a medical supply company has ties to an Edmonton woman who was detained in a massive cocaine bust in the Dominican Republic in April 2022.
Federal incorporation documents show that Stephen Anderson, chief operating officer of Global Health Imports (GHI), created a numbered company with Francheska Leblond in December 2021—
If you're looking at timelines, this would also align with the time in which Mr. Boissonnault had business dealings with Mr. Anderson, so we're at least at one degree of separation, or maybe less as the story evolves. This was four months before she was actually detained in a Caribbean country.
Boissonnault and Anderson co-owned GHI until mid-June, and he did claim that he had dropped the shares. What happened in that case was international in headlines. This was, for a moment, an international story, but what was never connected to this particular study was this person's possible connection:
Dominican authorities detained 12 Canadians, including Leblond, after a crew from the Canadian charter company Pivot Airlines said they discovered 210 kilograms of cocaine hidden in their plane.
I'm not talking small amounts here. That would make Escobar blush.
NDP
Matthew Green NDP Hamilton Centre, ON
Yet here we are with this degree....
Now, I should note that she was released, but she also was previously under RCMP investigation and has a history of drug charges under a previous name, Francheska Quach.
She wasn't charged and she was released by the RCMP, but that's just to give a bit of an example of the types of circles that Mr. Anderson was in a direct business relationship with, in one degree of separation.
There are lots of questions that we have about whether they had an office or whether they didn't have an office, and so on and so forth—
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
I have a point of order.
Finish your thought, but I do have a point of order to bring forward.
Conservative
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
It's just that it does say in the article that Randy Boissonnault has not met—
Liberal
Brenda Shanahan Liberal Châteauguay—Lacolle, QC
Can we have this article? Can we be provided with it?
Conservative