Juno News - Another day, another Liberal scandal

00:00:00.000 welcome back to the second ever episode of northern dispatch a show between true north

00:00:15.920 and our friends over at northern perspective well the news in ottawa is really getting exciting for

00:00:21.280 people who are not really the biggest fans of justin trudeau likely not nearly as exciting

00:00:25.980 for liberal supporters and especially for randy boss you know he's been in the news seemingly

00:00:32.340 every month for the past uh at least several months now and it just keeps getting worse for

00:00:37.780 randy so guys this entire story begins back in may with randy boss you know when it was uh found out

00:00:44.340 that a company he was a co-owner of at some point i believe he was uh he was listed as a director

00:00:50.300 of a company called global health imports and this company managed to get a bunch of federal

00:00:58.140 government ppe contracts what are the odds of that how convenient for randy boss no take us through

00:01:05.400 this first story regarding global health imports and randy boss knows involvement in this company

00:01:10.820 yeah so it was interesting global health imports is probably the most famous unsuccessful company

00:01:17.620 on the planet at this point um so after uh after he um didn't get re-elected he decided to take

00:01:26.740 advantage of the pandemic when when kovid reared its head met steven anderson allegedly on a plane

00:01:35.060 and decided that they were now going to be business partners for life so shortly after that they started

00:01:41.220 up this contract or this company almost out of nothing and started bidding on all these government

00:01:48.140 contracts they then ended up in some hot water uh which is still going on at this point because i guess

00:01:56.200 they um were supposed to provide some sort of services to another organization called the gaui group

00:02:03.560 gaui group is suing them for fraud among other organizations uh because they seem to have a habit of

00:02:11.220 uh i would say disingenuous business practices then when um it came to the election in 2021 uh randy

00:02:23.380 bossano decided to run again and become re-elected but the scandal actually was just starting at that

00:02:32.660 point because of potential conflicts of interest so um tanya what um what are the ministers supposed to do

00:02:42.660 when they are uh are up for re-election and then get re-elected and they have business interests

00:02:48.660 so within 60 days of their appointments ministers and every mp are supposed to be contacting the uh

00:02:56.660 office of the ethics commissioner and they're supposed to be submitting forms not only for themselves

00:03:00.660 but also for their spouse and their children under the age of 18 but also if they have any adult

00:03:06.660 children living at home who are also considered financially dependent on the mp or minister so

00:03:12.820 they have 60 days to submit paperwork for each and every family member and then the office of the

00:03:18.660 ethics commissioner is to review those documents so harrison a question for you because um you know you're a

00:03:24.660 journalist and you're going through uh to get your journalism degree and there's supposed to be an

00:03:30.660 understood level of journalistic integrity so if you were to become a journalist and then or rather you

00:03:38.660 are and then you were completely disingenuous with all of the practices you're supposed to be following

00:03:42.660 and then you get caught on it would you then saying oh i'm sorry i didn't know would that would that would

00:03:48.660 would that would that you know would that fly yeah well i guess it would it would i don't think i

00:03:54.660 don't think it would fly for me i don't think it would fly for certain journalists in this country but

00:03:58.660 if you happen to be a liberal mp if you happen to be a cabinet minister it appears as though the rules are

00:04:04.660 different for them and it's not just their perception that the rules are different for them

00:04:08.660 because guys they get away with all of this he's not the only mp to get away with ethics scandals and we're

00:04:14.660 going to get into that later but i find the whole thing to be completely ridiculous for many reasons

00:04:19.540 one of them being the fact that this company global health imports right is known for not paying bills

00:04:25.060 not paying uh not not not paying the bills are supposed to pay but it's not as if this company

00:04:29.940 wasn't making money they gained 8.2 million dollars in federal contracts of ppe and then when brought when

00:04:37.940 bossano was able to get re-elected he has maintained his 50 stake in the company and his directorship at the

00:04:43.380 company i mean really these guys seem to behave as though the rules do not apply to them they do

00:04:50.660 because it's very explicit in the conflict of interest act that ministers especially are not

00:04:56.420 supposed to be having any business dealings or any uh any interaction with their business they're

00:05:02.020 supposed to either divest their business dealings or they're supposed to put it into a blind trust

00:05:07.540 they're not to be involved well and it doesn't actually end there because what ended up happening

00:05:14.340 and and this is where steven anderson comes into the picture and why he has been raked over the

00:05:19.620 coals at committee and why he may eventually be summoned to the bar of the house if the government

00:05:24.740 doesn't fall first which maybe he's actually praying that the government falls before that happens

00:05:30.180 but what ended up happening is he was communicating with some of the other uh people in the company

00:05:40.100 and then also with the galley group and these text messages were actually produced where he was

00:05:45.780 referring to randy now in a two-person company it's not hard to find the roster of employees

00:05:53.940 so what he initially told global news because global news initially sniffed this out months ago

00:05:59.860 he said oh well um you know it was it was a different randy it wasn't randy boss no it was randy

00:06:06.500 you know but i'm not going to give you his last name so at committee recently he was uh he was

00:06:11.300 testifying to this fact where he admitted he lied to global news when he was speaking to them about that

00:06:16.660 and then he cocked uh conjured up the story that it was a auto correct now i don't know who he thinks

00:06:24.580 he's talking to but i think enough canadians have been using smartphones for long enough to understand

00:06:32.100 what an auto correct is and michael barrett just humiliated this guy by essentially reducing him to

00:06:39.140 absurdity by saying um i don't know what you think an auto correct is but this isn't that like

00:06:45.060 like auto corrects don't typically correct names and the other problem is that in these text messages

00:06:53.300 nobody questioned it so if it was an auto correct all of the other people in this conversation weren't

00:06:58.900 saying um you're referring to randy he's not in the company now is it like there was no challenge to

00:07:05.060 what he was actually saying and these text messages as well as uh some of the other text messages

00:07:11.780 between randy boissano and uh steven anderson were provided to the ethics commissioner in the

00:07:17.220 initial investigation uh ron finkelstein and he said nope there doesn't seem to be an issue here but

00:07:22.980 randy was supposed to have provided all communication and he did not as we learned later so there was all

00:07:29.060 these whatsapp messages and other text messages that weren't provided and um it was revealed that he was

00:07:36.580 actually texting steven anderson from a cabinet retreat in vancouver yet he claims that i have

00:07:43.620 not been involved and was not managing my company so it seems that every everything this guy says

00:07:50.660 it's actually refuted about you know two or three weeks later yeah it really is unbelievable and that's

00:07:56.580 not that's not the only story with randy as we discussed at the beginning his entire indigenous ancestry

00:08:03.300 has now been thrown in the trash because it turns out to be completely fake but before that there's

00:08:08.340 a story regarding his ties to a federal lobbyist now i gotta just read this out to you and tanya i

00:08:15.060 want you to jump in here after this because i just can't believe this is real lobbyist kirsten poon

00:08:21.060 with business connections to federal minister randy boissano met with senior political staff in six

00:08:26.340 federal departments between 2021 and 2022 aiding and securing 110 million dollars in federal

00:08:33.060 grants for the edmonton international airport and uh the claims boissano claims to have complied with

00:08:41.300 conflict of interest and ethics regulations but experts have raised concerns about the transparency

00:08:45.860 of his relationship with poon particularly regarding her continued lobbying on behalf of the edmonton

00:08:50.580 regional airports authority and his own randy boissano happens to have his own uh uh what is it this

00:08:58.420 seems to be a a lobbying firm as well so there's two lobbying firms involved uh boissano a close friend

00:09:04.660 of this lobbyist who happened to just get oh you know 110 million dollars in federal grants this guy

00:09:10.420 seems to be playing a massive grift on the canadian people am i wrong in thinking that i'll tell you what

00:09:16.820 let's just pretend for a minute that what he did was totally okay it's the perception that's important with

00:09:24.740 ethics um you maybe are not breaking any ethics rules but the perception that you're breaking those ethics

00:09:31.300 rules becomes the problem and i'm not the ethics commissioner so i can't say whether or not what

00:09:36.900 randy did was incorrect but i will say that it looks really really bad and he probably shouldn't

00:09:42.420 have done it well and the other problem is that that's exactly it and when i when i was managing

00:09:48.820 employees i would always coach them on their internal company reputation and i would i would

00:09:55.220 advise them that it doesn't really matter what the truth is perception is reality so you need to make

00:10:01.380 sure that especially if you're in a public position uh and remember these guys signed up for this they

00:10:06.740 didn't get drag kicking and screaming into running for right they weren't dragged into cabinet so um you

00:10:12.660 know what what they need to be doing is making sure that from the get-go they are laying everything out

00:10:18.740 and they are ensuring and they have staff to do this work with the ethics commissioner's office

00:10:25.220 pour over the conflict of interest act make sure that you've done every possible thing to divest

00:10:29.940 yourself from any potential conflict of interest and i would even have the ethics commissioner sign

00:10:34.740 off on it and they're actually supposed to um as they're entering cabinets so the fact that there's

00:10:39.780 all this oh i didn't know and i forgot and oh i didn't know i had these other phones and i didn't

00:10:43.860 know i had this and oh i forgot i wasn't indigenous it is just so so poor right because they are supposed

00:10:51.060 to be contacting the ethics commissioner or the office of the ethics commissioner if they do have

00:10:55.460 questions or if they're not sure of something that's the whole purpose of that office

00:11:00.340 and randy boissano's company global health imports billed itself as a wholly owned indigenous and lgbtq

00:11:08.420 company resulting in the company qualifying for and when you just guess it receiving federal indigenous

00:11:15.700 company grants we now know ryan that uh well randy boss knows entire indigenous ancestry was fake and

00:11:24.660 not only that he used it not only to stuff his own pockets but he also used it to advance his own

00:11:31.060 political career he was he sat as a member of the liberal indigenous caucus he was billed by the liberal

00:11:36.900 party as an indigenous politician yeah and and he's been known for appearing at events uh especially

00:11:44.100 when he's campaigning and he would start all of his speeches or appearances uh by speaking in cree and

00:11:51.780 then he would educate the you know the people around him oh and this is what that means and if my

00:11:56.260 grandmother were here you know she might have said that and and all of this so it is it's frankly

00:12:02.740 disgusting that you have somebody that is using using and abusing indigenous heritage to further his own

00:12:11.780 interests and it really casts a poor light on the actual indigenous people that are trying to make their

00:12:19.620 way in uh in this country and for a party that has built itself and and built itself upon the foundation of we

00:12:28.100 are for indigenous people and we are for truth and reconciliation all this stuff can i just jump in

00:12:33.860 i think that if this liberal government wasn't so obsessed with identity none of this would matter

00:12:39.620 like the mps the cabinet ministers they would just focus on being the best mp or the best cabinet minister

00:12:45.540 that they could be and they would focus on serving canadians and they wouldn't focus on all this on

00:12:49.700 identity politics do you think that canadians are going through what some are describing as scandal

00:12:55.540 fatigue that you know we already know this guy is clearly and blatantly corrupt the people around

00:13:01.780 him are profiting off of the canadian people and off of the the power of their positions we know that

00:13:07.940 the ethics commissioner has said said that many times but you know like i said before what's one more

00:13:14.100 scandal to the to the long list of scandals that we already know about are canadians kind of just saying

00:13:19.140 themselves yeah i get it these guys are corrupt i think so we see it often in the comments

00:13:25.540 when we report on a new scandal or new details of a current scandal

00:13:29.860 a lot of canadians i think are dismayed and we'll see comments like well nothing's going to happen

00:13:33.860 why does it matter why do we even try i think we have to try because i always say if you do nothing

00:13:40.100 absolutely nothing will happen but if you do something maybe it's making a video maybe it's

00:13:44.180 sharing a video maybe it's writing your mp about these scandals if you do something there's a chance

00:13:49.380 a very small chance but a chance that something could change yeah and in thinking about this i

00:13:54.020 actually i i don't think the number of scandals is the problem i think it's the fact that literally

00:14:01.860 literally nothing happens if every time a scandal came up uh someone was held accountable i think

00:14:07.300 people would be ready to hear it all day sure no problem you know let's let's see another scandal

00:14:11.620 let's see somebody held accountable the problem is is within the government you have a lot of corruption

00:14:19.380 the things that canadians on on the whole don't necessarily understand is corruption does not

00:14:25.300 necessarily equal a criminal offense and so you hear a lot of people say where we're all the when

00:14:31.140 are all these people going to jail well the problem is is our legal code doesn't necessarily cover

00:14:36.580 all forms of corruption so you can you can have somebody in government they can you know help give

00:14:43.220 their friends a whole bunch of money that's not a criminal offense you can't go to jail for that

00:14:47.780 but it is breaking ethics violations so what we need to do and this is what the conservative government

00:14:54.180 has talked about is looking at bringing in anti-corruption laws and michael barrett has brought forth

00:14:59.540 bill c405 that aims to actually put in meaningful consequences to breaking ethics laws which is you know

00:15:07.460 potentially fines of up to fifty thousand dollars or you know matching their income potential jail time

00:15:13.780 for people for for lying to committee for being in content so there there has to be consequences

00:15:20.660 and accountability with teeth for canadians to trust their government no matter who is in there

00:15:26.100 right and and let's get into that because it it all signs are pointing to the government changing

00:15:30.740 hands and for a majority conservative government and with the track record that the liberals have left

00:15:36.500 behind it's not a stretch for canadians to assume that there will be a lot of funny business that

00:15:41.780 goes on in the next federal government that there will be people who want to get rich off their

00:15:45.380 positions and engage in corruption there's a private members bill that's been proposed here um you know

00:15:51.300 we've seen conservative private members bills usually they don't end up getting passed and why would

00:15:55.380 this government want to hold itself to account like that i think that's pretty obvious should canadians have

00:16:00.900 confidence that when the conservative government is in power they will go ahead and pass this

00:16:06.420 rule and and try to hold themselves to account or uh is that something that canadian people have to

00:16:12.740 assume themselves the media has to assume themselves so i think canadians um canadians should have hope

00:16:22.740 that the uh conservative government will do this but they shouldn't just sit back and wait for it to

00:16:28.180 happen what the what canadians should do is they should be writing the conservative leader they should be

00:16:34.900 writing their conservative mp if you have a conservative mp and if you just have an eda and a conservative

00:16:41.220 candidate you should be writing your conservative candidate and let them know what you expect them

00:16:45.460 to do is to introduce legislation that will hold our politicians to to account it is a privilege not a

00:16:53.300 right to serve in ottawa they are the servants not masters and they don't get to dictate how they're

00:17:00.100 actually held account in in their jobs they do now because we're using a 100 year old honor system that

00:17:06.900 used to mean something but it doesn't mean something anymore so canadians need to let their nps know

00:17:13.940 regularly and uh and what they actually expect and that's accountability because otherwise

00:17:21.940 other priorities may get in the way rightly or wrongly other priorities may get in the way but

00:17:26.900 in my opinion one of the first things that this government should be doing if they're serious

00:17:31.780 about establishing building up public trust again in this institution is one of the first bills that

00:17:37.620 they should be working on and putting in is saying this is how we're going to be holding ourselves

00:17:41.700 account if we step out of line we are going to be facing serious penalties so you set the tone out of

00:17:47.700 the gate that we are aiming to build trust back with canadians and they can they can multitask with

00:17:54.500 all of the other things like repealing the carbon tax and all this stuff but that has to be a focus

00:17:59.060 so canadians will actually trust them and tanya i get the impression from reading comments and being

00:18:06.020 on social media that canadians have lost basically all trust in parliament in in in all the members of

00:18:13.860 parliament essentially they look at ottawa as a corrupt cesspool of people who don't really care about

00:18:19.940 the country don't really care about their constituents but love the job love the perks

00:18:24.260 the pension as well but just don't care about the people do you think that restoring trust within

00:18:32.580 the next four years five years is even possible at this point i don't know how long it's going to

00:18:37.780 take but the conservatives are going to have to work hard to earn back canadians trust we've been

00:18:42.740 under this liberal government for nine years now and we've seen that the corruption flows from the top

00:18:48.660 down we have so many people who who write to us and say you know i've tried contacting my mp but i

00:18:55.940 either get like a pre-written response or i get no response at all and they're a liberal and i don't

00:19:00.900 i don't think that they're taking my my viewpoint into account um i'd say don't stop writing because we

00:19:08.260 have to keep that dialogue open with our mps if you send your mp a letter and you say this particular

00:19:18.020 topic is concerning me i don't appreciate that you voted against it in the house of commons they

00:19:23.460 might not respond to you but they absolutely see that and that's them kind of getting the pulse of

00:19:29.060 of their constituents um so if enough of us are in contact with our conservative mps and our

00:19:36.180 conservative candidates and we let them know accountability is a huge issue in government and

00:19:42.500 we want you guys to hold yourselves accountable or we will do it for you and the other thing that

00:19:48.020 we really encourage canadians to do is not wait until something goes wrong to to write your mp when

00:19:54.820 you see them stand up and and defend something when you see them stand up and take accountability when you

00:20:00.340 see them stand up and you know act righteously that is also a time to write an mp as well because

00:20:06.980 you want to be letting them know that you noticed the good behavior that they uh that they exerted

00:20:12.500 and you want to continue to encourage that so if they see that people are noticing both the good and

00:20:17.940 the bad then they're going to be at least nudged in the right direction to uh to act righteously and which

00:20:26.020 is in the best interest of canadians not their pocketbook like training pets positive and negative

00:20:31.460 reinforcement hopefully it can result in some a restoration of trust in this country and some

00:20:37.940 belief in our institutions once again well that's all the time we have for this episode of the northern

00:20:42.900 감사합니다 so thank you all for watching

Juno News - November 21, 2024

Another day, another Liberal scandal

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