THE ARROGANT DOMINIC LEBLANC

   Fisheries Minister Dominic LeBlanc defended his decision to award a lucrative clam harvesting quota to an Atlantic Canadian company with ties to the Liberal Party and to his family, telling the House of Commons on Tuesday that his wife has a lot of relatives.
   Mr. LeBlanc is being investigated by Canada’s federal Ethics Commissioner after he ordered the allocation of an Arctic surf-clam quota worth millions of dollars to a partnership between Indigenous groups and a company led by the brother of a Liberal member of Parliament. In addition, one of the participating Indigenous groups is led by a former Liberal MP.
   Documents filed in court as part of a legal challenge of the Fisheries Minister’s decision by an aboriginal band in Newfoundland and Labrador revealed that the Indigenous corporation that is part of the winning bid, Five Nations Clam Co., was originally headed by Gilles Thériault, who is the first cousin of Mr. LeBlanc’s wife, Jolène Richard.