OTTAWA — He’s not going anywhere.
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Questioned in the House of Commons after Monday’s bombshell news that a business he co-owned shared a mailbox with a woman involved in two major drug busts, embattled Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault says he won’t resign.
“I don’t know the person referred to in the article today, I’ve never met her, I’ve had no dealings with her whatsoever,” Boissonnault said after being grilled by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre during Monday’s question period.
“The article states that fact, and that is a fact.”
During question period, Poilievre made two separate calls for the minister to step aside.
Reported by the National Post on Monday, corporate filings reveal that an Edmonton post office box rented by the minister’s former business venture, Global Health Imports (GHI), is the same one used as a home address to Francheska Leblond — a woman the National Post reported has history with police dating back over 15 years.
Leblond, who has also gone by the name Francheska Quach, was a passenger on the Toronto-bound aircraft detained in the Dominican Republic in 2022 after authorities found over 200 kilograms of cocaine aboard.
The plane’s 15 passengers and crew were held without charges in the Caribbean country for several months before being released.
Global News reported that Leblond was also the target of a 2013 Edmonton drug bust that saw $25,000 worth of cocaine and weapons seized by police.
Lablond’s charges in that case were withdrawn.
Global reported over the summer that Stephen Anderson, Boissonnault’s former business partner, incorporated a Canadian numbered company with Leblond several months before the Dominican cocaine seizure.
GHI, of which Boisonnault divested his half-share in the company earlier this year, has been in the news since news came to light about several lawsuits concerning alleged fraud in the company.
Boissonnault found himself in the crosshairs again this month over allegations GHI billed themselves as “Indigenous-owned” while competing for federal contracts, even though neither he or Anderson are Indigenous.
A member of the Liberals’ Indigenous caucus, Boissonnault has alternately described himself as both “non-status adoptive Cree,” the great-grandchild of a “full-blooded Cree,” and the adopted child of “status Métis” parents.
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