OTTAWA — Former cabinet minister Randy Boissonnault says he is trying to repair any damage he has done by making shifting statements about his connections to Indigenous heritage, as he faced more accusations on Thursday of trying to mislead Parliamentarians.
The Edmonton MP testified before the parliamentary committee on Indigenous and Northern affairs on Thursday, the first time he has spoken publicly since leaving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet last month amid growing calls for him to resign after it was revealed the company he co-owned had bid on federal contracts by declaring itself as fully Indigenous owned.
Boissonnault, who was serving as employment minister, has said a former business partner was the one to have made that claim and did so without seeking his consent or having any knowledge of it happening.
He apologized on Thursday for how he has described his family’s ties to Indigenous ancestry. He delivered his first apology in Edmonton weeks earlier.
“It has been a difficult time to see our family’s history be challenged publicly and I recognize the ways in which I described my heritage have not always been as accurate as they could have been,” Boissonnault said.
“I have never attempted to leverage my adopted family’s history for personal or political gain.”
When he was first elected in 2015, Boissonnault called himself “non-status adopted Cree.” This fall, he clarified that his adoptive mother and brother were in fact Métis.
Before leaving cabinet, Boissonnault’s former office also confirmed that his great-grandmother, whom he had repeatedly referred to in Parliament as being a “full-blooded Cree woman,” was in fact not, but that her family had Métis lineage.
The committee heard that had been Boissonnault’s understanding of his family growing up until recently, and that it was during the COVID-19 pandemic that his adoptive mother and brother learned more about their history and became citizens with the Métis Nation of Alberta.
“As someone adopted into an Indigenous family, I wanted to speak about that history in a way that was respectful and accurate. That is why I worked with an Indigenous researcher, and how I arrived at the term ‘non-status adopted Cree,’” he said in a prepared set of opening remarks.
“This term ensured that I claimed no Indigenous status for myself, while also honouring the Indigenous heritage of the family who adopted and raised me.”
During his testimony, Conservative MP Garnett Genuis challenged Boissonnault on how the researcher in question has since stated that he did not give Boissonnault that term, and asked if he wanted to correct his opening statement.
The MP responded by saying he had been “very clear” during his initial remarks.
“I said that I chose the term ‘non-status, adopted Cree’ after having the conversation,” said Boissonnault.
“Frankly, that’s what we’ve come to expect from you,” Genuis replied.
Boissonnault added he “came up with the term” to try to honour his family.
Conservative MPs repeatedly pressed the representative on how he could be believed, with Michael Barrett, the party’s ethics critic, at one point questioning whether he was a journalist, as he stated he was when he first entered politics.
“I was a regular reporter for the francophone news outlet, Radio-Canada,” Boissonnault said. Last summer, a report by Quebec newspaper Le Devoir raised questions about those claims.
“You said one thing, and the exact opposite is true,” Barrett said.
NDP MP Lori Idlout, who is Inuk, also questioned how Boissonnault was trying to make amends for any harm done to Indigenous people through his statement, at one point saying he had engaged in race-shifting.
Pointing to his apologies, Boissonnault said that process was ongoing, and not only was he open to hearing her advice, but that he had been speaking with Indigenous elders and other leaders.
“I have checked in with Indigenous leaders and elders about using Cree in my speeches,” he said. “Do they still want me to do that? Do they still think it’s appropriate? So I’m having these conversations. I think that’s part of my own learning journey here.”
“I never intended to be unclear about my history or my family’s history, and I think that is an important personal act for me when it comes to reconciliation.”
He added to Idlout: “And if I could, I would say thank you in your language, if that were appropriate, but I’d seek out your consent to do that first. So I will just say thank you. ”
For years, Boissonnault would begin funding announcements and speeches in Parliament with a Cree greeting.
He would also sometimes refer to himself as “Strong Eagle Man,” which he told Thursday’s committee was a name gifted to him by an elder in Edmonton in 2021 as part of a ceremony hosted by a society dedicated to serving two-spirit community members.
“They said I gave voice to the voiceless, and that the reason they chose ‘Strong Eagle Man’ was because I would be flying back and forth to Ottawa after the election.”
A notice to the community about that event also said it was to thank Boissonnault for helping it secure funding.
Boissonnault told Thursday’s committee he was in he first steps towards launching legal action against Stephen Anderson, the former business partner whom he said was responsible for bidding on federals contract in June 2020 by billing their medical supplies company as wholly “Indigenous” and “Aboriginal-owned.”
He said he stepped away from their company, Global Health Imports, which has since been named in different lawsuits, following his re-election to Parliament in September 2021 after losing the 2019 election.
Boissonnault said the reason he had no knowledge of his former business partner’s June 2020 bids was because he was not involved in federal contracts, given his position as a member of Parliament, which meant he had to follow lobbying rules.
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