BLIND TRUST: Carney claims ethics compliance while still holding Brookfield assets

Prime Minister Mark Carney claims he has “over-complied” with ethics requirements, while at the same time defending his decision to refuse to disclose his investments.

Brookfield Asset Management of New York in a March 16 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission said Carney as then-chair held the equivalent of $9.8 million in stock options as of December 31, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.

Carney announced his Liberal leadership candidacy two weeks later on January 16.

Carney on Monday confirmed he held stock in two multinational corporations headquartered abroad but said would not sell his holdings.

“I have complied with all the aspects,” Carney told reporters. “

I have over-complied, in fact, well in advance and this is the system we have. I am proud that we have it.”

“You say you are in talks with the Ethics Commissioner to set up a conflict of interest screen; why not just sell your Brookfield shares and get rid of your unexercised options to avoid having to recuse yourself?” asked a reporter.

“I have more than complied with all the rules,” replied Carney.

“I have divested all my assets with the exception of cash and personal real estate, a house and a cottage, into the blind trust as is the route. It’s a blind trust.”

Carney said he would recuse himself from any dealings with Brookfield and Stripe.com, a Dublin-based retail payment company.

“I have set up screens for Brookfield and a company called Stripe that I used to be on the board of, I have set up those screens already well in advance,” he said.

“They will be administered by the Clerk of the Privy Council and chief of staff.”

“As well, I have already filed months and months and months and months in advance with the Ethics Commissioner all the details of when the divestitures happened.”

Carney’s holdings with Stripe.com are not known.

Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau similarly used conflict screens to “avoid the perception of preferential treatment” with the Aga Khan, a federal contractor.

“I must abstain from any matter, discussion or decision other than my participation in activities that are ceremonial in nature specifically targeting the interest of the Aga Khan and his institutions,” Trudeau wrote in a 2019 ethics filing.

Trudeau’s pledge followed his 2017 failure to report a $215,000 sunny holiday at a private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan, director of a registered lobbyist the Aga Khan Foundation.

“Neither Mr. Trudeau nor his family should have vacationed on the Aga Khan’s private island,” the Ethics Commissioner wrote in a 2017 Trudeau Report.

“Mr. Trudeau has a number of official dealings relating to the Aga Khan and his institutions where he was exercising an official power, duty or function.”

Then-Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson later testified she believed Trudeau was well-meaning and that his ethical lapses were harmless.

“I feel the prime minister’s heart is in the right place,” she told a 2020 hearing of the Commons Ethics Committee.

“I feel he tries to do the right thing. He tries to do good and I just think these things have been oversights, really.”