Boisvenu is the founding president of the Murdered or Missing Persons' Families' Association, which he founded after the 2002 kidnaping, forcible confinement, rape and murder of his daughter Julie. In 2006, the Association that he leads won a battle for the rights of victims of crime with the adoption of Bill 25 by the
National Assembly of Quebec. This bill provides better compensation for victims of crime. He is also co-founder of the
Le Nid centre, a shelter for abused women in
Val-d'Or, and of a camp for underprivileged youth in
Estrie. Professionally, Boisvenu is a former provincial civil servant in Quebec, and was regional director for the Department of Recreation, Game and Fisheries and for the Department of the Environment before becoming
Deputy Minister for the Department of Regions. In June 2013, it was reported that a Senate ethics complaint was filed against Boisvenu. The complaints relate to Boisvenu using his position of senator to influence the clerk of the Senate and another Senator to arrange a job and time off for his assistant, with whom he had a romantic relationship. Furthermore, objections were raised because of Boisvenu's six-month delay in complying with a previous ethics order. In June 2014, Senate ethics officer Lyse Ricard found that Boisvenu had acted inappropriately by renewing his assistant's contract while the two were involved in a relationship, and that he also violated the code by promising her a two-week period of sick leave between jobs. He then contacted Senate clerk Gary O'Brien and Senate leader David Tkachuk in a bid to have the time off counted as sick leave and not vacation time. However, Ricard concluded that Boisvenu was responsible for "an error of judgment made in good faith" and did not recommend he be sanctioned. In 2012, there were media reports that, after his divorce, Boisvenu continued to charge the Senate for $20,000 in out-of-town living expenses, even though he had left his home in Sherbrooke, Quebec, and was living in Gatineau, Quebec. Boisvenu resigned from the Conservative caucus in June 2015 after learning that he is the subject of an
RCMP investigation into his expense claims. He was readmitted to the Conservative caucus on November 22, 2016, after the RCMP decided not to lay charges against the Senator. ==Alleged links to the far-right==