Morneau chose not to establish blind trust, ethics watchdog says

[mentalfloss]

Morneau 1
Conbots 0


Morneau chose not to establish blind trust, ethics watchdog says

Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, speaking publicly for the first time on Finance Minister Bill Morneau's financial arrangements, made it clear she didn't advise the Toronto politician against establishing a blind trust for his substantial assets.

The federal watchdog emphasized that she merely advised him there was no need to set one up.

Ms. Dawson's comments to reporters Tuesday indicate that she was making it clear it was Mr. Morneau's decision not to set up a blind trust, which would have put his wealth beyond his reach while he serves in public office.

The commissioner told media that she did not tell Mr. Morneau he should not put his holdings in a blind trust.

"I said it wasn't necessary," she told reporters.

Ms. Dawson added that an explanation for why it was not necessary would require her to take questioners through the legislation governing what constitutes a conflict of interest for public office holders.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his Finance Minister, who is one of the richest people in his cabinet, did not establish a blind trust because of Ms. Dawson's advice.

"We have in Canada a Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner who is mandated to ensure everyone follows the rules … I can tell you the Minister of Finance worked extensively with [the Commissioner] when he came into this job and followed all her recommendations," Mr. Trudeau told reporters.

The Prime Minister placed his family fortune in a blind trust when he came to office.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/ne...paign=Shared+Web+Article+Links&service=mobile

 

[Angstrom]

Why did you lose you’re mind on Duffy if this is totally acceptable?

#nocredibility

 

[TenPenny]

Typical, thinking they live in another realm. Fuk him.

 

[Colpy]

Morneau 1
Conbots 0


Morneau chose not to establish blind trust, ethics watchdog says

Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson, speaking publicly for the first time on Finance Minister Bill Morneau's financial arrangements, made it clear she didn't advise the Toronto politician against establishing a blind trust for his substantial assets.

The federal watchdog emphasized that she merely advised him there was no need to set one up.

Ms. Dawson's comments to reporters Tuesday indicate that she was making it clear it was Mr. Morneau's decision not to set up a blind trust, which would have put his wealth beyond his reach while he serves in public office.

The commissioner told media that she did not tell Mr. Morneau he should not put his holdings in a blind trust.

"I said it wasn't necessary," she told reporters.

Ms. Dawson added that an explanation for why it was not necessary would require her to take questioners through the legislation governing what constitutes a conflict of interest for public office holders.

On Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said his Finance Minister, who is one of the richest people in his cabinet, did not establish a blind trust because of Ms. Dawson's advice.

"We have in Canada a Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner who is mandated to ensure everyone follows the rules … I can tell you the Minister of Finance worked extensively with [the Commissioner] when he came into this job and followed all her recommendations," Mr. Trudeau told reporters.

The Prime Minister placed his family fortune in a blind trust when he came to office.

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/ne...paign=Shared+Web+Article+Links&service=mobile

You are correct to this extent:

The fact that the Ethics Commissioner ruled Morneau did not have to establish a blind trust certainly excuses him from not doing so. If he was not required to, then there is nothing you can legally hold him liable for.......

Which does not excuse him for being incompetent, arrogant liar, "forgetting" his holding company in France, going after the upper middle while carefully sparing his tens of millions, and generally being a completely typical lying Liberal turd.

 

[mentalfloss]

Typical, thinking they live in another realm. Fuk him.

 

[Retired_Can_Soldier]

Ottawa has been ****ing the little guy since the beginning. All of them are pigs at the trough. Tax the middle class to death, but install outlandish perks for politicians. It's the way it is up there. Only way to change it is to run for government.

Who's with me?

 

[captain morgan]

You are correct to this extent:

The fact that the Ethics Commissioner ruled Morneau did not have to establish a blind trust certainly excuses him from not doing so. If he was not required to, then there is nothing you can legally hold him liable for.......

Which does not excuse him for being incompetent, arrogant liar, "forgetting" his holding company in France, going after the upper middle while carefully sparing his tens of millions, and generally being a completely typical lying Liberal turd.

Just like Duffy, Morneau and tater tot will be judged in the Court of public opinion.

It really won't matter what the technicalities are come election day

 

[TenPenny]

You are correct to this extent:

The fact that the Ethics Commissioner ruled Morneau did not have to establish a blind trust certainly excuses him from not doing so. If he was not required to, then there is nothing you can legally hold him liable for.......

Which does not excuse him for being incompetent, arrogant liar, "forgetting" his holding company in France, going after the upper middle while carefully sparing his tens of millions, and generally being a completely typical lying Liberal turd.

Exactly, times 100.

 

[Hoid]

I thought after Paul Martin and the CSL blind trust controversy this would no longer be a problem.

 

[WLDB]

Ottawa has been ****ing the little guy since the beginning. All of them are pigs at the trough. Tax the middle class to death, but install outlandish perks for politicians. It's the way it is up there. Only way to change it is to run for government.

Who's with me?

The people who try that and manage to get in usually wind up liking those same perks and change their mind. Otherwise it would have ended by now.

As for not doing a blind trust, that was just stupid of him. It may not be legally required but it looks a lot better when you do that rather than having open conflicts of interest.

I thought after Paul Martin and the CSL blind trust controversy this would no longer be a problem.

One would think. Morneau apparently didn’t.

 

[MHz]

Come on, this is the French, they invented 'pay for play' so why make the deposits any harder than it has to be.
Where is the account now, the Rivera??

One would think. Morneau apparently didn’t.

It wasn't the first European Politician to be on the wrong side of the Law.

[youtube]yFTWtplnoIc[/youtube]
Mick Jagger - Old Habits Die Hard

 

[Colpy]

Bill Morneau says he doesn't 'report to journalists,' bristles at questions about personal finances


Finance ministers says there's 'noise' around his decision to use an Alberta company to hold investments

By John Paul Tasker, CBC News Posted: Oct 20, 2017 3:32 PM ET Last Updated: Oct 20, 2017 4:34 PM ET

Finance Minister Bill Morneau was in Waterloo, Ont., to speak on the government's changes to small business tax rules. Reporters continued to question him about his business holdings, a day after he said he would divest his shares in the family business. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)


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John Paul Tasker
Parliamentary Bureau


John Paul (J.P.) Tasker is a reporter in the CBC's Parliamentary bureau in Ottawa. He can be reached at john.tasker@cbc.ca.

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Related Stories

• Morneau pitches tax reform to small business forum in Waterloo
• Bill Morneau tries to divest himself of a controversy: Aaron Wherry
• 'I need to do more': Bill Morneau takes steps to calm ethics controversy

Finance Minister Bill Morneau dodged questions about his use of numbered companies to hold investments Friday, suggesting he does not have to defend his personal financial choices to journalists.
After a week of questions about his own fortune, Morneau showed signs of exasperation during an event in Waterloo, Ont., where he was pitching the government's "step back" on proposed changes to the small business tax regime.
Morneau batted away a question about why he held some of his investments in an Alberta company rather than one domiciled in Ontario, where he lives.
"So, is the question why are they numbered companies and they don't have names?" he said with a shrug.
"Seriously, what I've done is expose all my assets to the ethics commissioner. The process we have in our country isn't that I report to journalists on my personal situation. It's that I report to the ethics commissioner and I make sure she fully understands my situation so we can get to the recommendations."
Owning investments in a personal holding company can provide various tax and non-tax benefits. Income in an operating company can face a lower tax rate by using small business deductions, for example.

• Morneau pitches tax reform to small business forum in Waterloo
• Bill Morneau tries to divest himself of a controversy: Aaron Wherry

Morneau said he has now agreed to do more than what the commissioner, Mary Dawson, recommended he do when he took office.
Morneau did not place his considerable holdings in a family company — the publicly traded human resources firm Morneau Shepell — in a blind trust because Dawson had only recommended the creation of an "ethical screen" to ensure he wasn't making policy decisions to his own financial benefit. The screen was to be administered by Morneau's chief of staff.

Morneau: 'The process we have in our country isn't that I report to journalists'





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Morneau: 'The process we have in our country isn't that I report to journalists'0:59

"I expected what finance ministers before me had done, doing what the other 337 MPs had done, was the right way to address that issue, and what I found is that there's noise around this and people like you asking about specific issues in my personal finances."
Morneau said he will now divest the remaining one million shares he holds in the company "he built for 25 years," to put such questions to rest.
"I'm going to take all my assets and put them in a blind trust," he said. "Nobody else before me has gone this far."
The Conflict of Interest Act stipulates a public office holder cannot personally hold "controlled assets" — like shares, mutual funds, exchange-traded funds — but is silent on what is required if those assets are held by a holding company in which the minister has a controlling stake.
In a statement sent to CBC News, a spokesperson for Dawson said the commissioner has recommended — on at least two separate occasions before the House of Commons ethics committee — that parliamentarians address the loophole relating to indirect holdings, and expand the act's scope to cover investments held in a holding company or "other similar mechanisms."
'Not the kind of ethics and honesty that we expect'

Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre said it's a clear ethical lapse for the minister to own shares in a company he regulates as finance minister.

Poilievre: 'He's made a terrible error in judgment'





00:00 00:52







Poilievre: 'He's made a terrible error in judgment'0:52

"It has always been understood that ministers are banned from owning stocks. What he did is came in and found a loophole he said, 'What if I have those stocks in a numbered company in Alberta? Then it's the company that owns the stocks and not me.'
"He can brag that he was clever enough to find a trick around the spirit of the law, but that's not the kind of ethics and honesty that we expect," Poilievre said in an interview with CBC News.

• 'I need to do more': Bill Morneau takes steps to calm ethics controversy

Poilievre said Morneau should "come clean" with the assets he holds in the other "eight or nine numbered companies or trust funds" in which he has an ownership stake.
At least four of those companies are used to hold real estate interests. The minister is also a beneficiary of his wife's trust fund. Nancy McCain is a member of the wealthy family that owns New Brunswick-based McCain Foods, a company best known for its frozen french fries.

Politics News
Finance MPs on Bill Morneau's financial holdings





00:00 13:08







Finance MPs on Bill Morneau's financial holdings13:08


Bill Morneau says he doesn't 'report to journalists,' bristles at questions about personal finances - Politics - CBC News


Bill Morneau has got to go!

 

[captain morgan]

The more he opens his mouth, the deeper the liberals get.

I just love it when a gubmint official puffs out their chest and acts all high and mighty

 

[petros]

an eye for an eye

 

[Curious Cdn]

The more he opens his mouth, the deeper the liberals get.

I just love it when a gubmint official puffs out their chest and acts all high and mighty

You know that all of this is because he got caught. If he hadn't, there would be no blind trust necessary ("I won't notice ANY of the money my tax system has generated for me because I'm an HONEST man", thinks Bill)

Well, Bill. We don't know that you are and, by your inaction, it is reasonable for us poor taxpayers footing the bills to assume that you are not honest. We have to take that approach to protect OUR interests in this heavily one-sided transaction that you're running with the paying public.

 

[captain morgan]

... As the old expression goes; It ain't illegal until you get caught