The saga of Employment Minister Randy Boissonnault’s former company Global Health Imports has taken yet another turn as corporate filings revealed it shared a post office box with a woman implicated in two major drug busts.
The mailbox was rented from an Edmonton UPS store and appeared on the 2020 licence for Global Health Imports while Boissonnault was still actively involved.
According to Health Canada records obtained by the National Post through access-to-information legislation, the mailbox was shared with a different company’s registration and registered under the name of Francheska Leblond.
Leblond is a woman who has a history of run-ins with the law dating back to 2008, according to Alberta Court of Justice records.
This overlap has sparked concerns over security gaps in how the Trudeau government has vetted its cabinet ministers.
It also comes on the heels of Boissonnault’s latest scandal involving claims of Indigenous heritage while receiving federal contracts under a program reserved for Indigenous-owned businesses.
The Indigenous heritage scandal was in addition to the already highly publicized “Other Randy” scandal regarding Boissonnault’s continued involvement in GHI business dealings after being elected as a cabinet minister.
The culmination of these scandals has led the Conservative party to launch a petition calling for Boissonnault’s resignation.
Boissonnault confirmed that he sold his GHI shares this year and is no longer associated with the company he co-founded in response to public backlash.
However, Global News reported that his co-founder Stephen Anderson and Leblond had registered a business together called 13560449 Canada Ltd. in Sept. 2021, while Boissinault was still involved with GHI.
Boissonnault did not respond to True North’s request for comment. However, his spokesperson Alice Hansen, told the National Post that he is now at odds with his former partner, Anderson.
“Minister Boissonnault does not know, and has never met Ms. Lablond,” said Hansen, adding that she “had no involvement” with GHI.
Authorities in the Dominican Republic found over 200 kilograms of cocaine on a Toronto-bound charter plane in April 2022, while Leblond was on board as a passenger.
The discovery resulted in all seven passengers and flight crew being detained in the DR for months before eventually being released without charge.
It was later reported in March 2023 that an Edmonton drug-smuggling ring was responsible for chartering the flight.
Leblond was also arrested by the Edmonton Police Service’s Drug and Gang Enforcement Unit in 2013 along with two others in a cocaine bust. She was charged with several weapons offences and two drug possession offences, however, all charges were eventually withdrawn.
Additionally, Leblond received a year of parole after being convicted of marijuana possession in 2008.
“Trudeau’s Minister from Edmonton Randy Boissonnault’s company connected with cocaine smugglers. Randy owned 50% of the company! Liars. Fraudsters. International drug smugglers,” wrote Conservative MP Micheal Barrett in a post to X. “This is the company kept by a Trudeau cabinet minister.”
Boissonnault created GHI, a medical supplies company along with Anderson during an intermittent period when he was not in government as a result of losing his seat between 2019 and 2021.
During this time, the company registered with the same P.O. box address as Lelond with Health Canada on its federal licence as an operating site.
According to Hansen, the decision was made on the advice of Boissonnault’s lawyer and he was under the impression that “this P.O box belonged to Mr. Anderson. This was the height of COVID and both individuals were working at distance.”
“Minister Boissonnault will be exploring legal action against Mr. Anderson,” added Hansen.
It remains unknown how long GHI’s association with Leblond continued for.
“Be it resolved that we call on Randy Boissonnault, who lies about who he is and who he isn’t, and is a fake and a fraud just like his boss Justin Trudeau, to resign immediately,” reads the Conservative’s petition.
