Trudeau suffered the wrath of the opposition to the minister of Finance Bill Morneau

Archival Photo, QMI Agency

Maxime Huard

Wednesday, 18 October 2017 15:52

UPDATE
Wednesday, 18 October 2017 15:52

Look at this article

OTTAWA | Spurred on relentlessly by the opposition, Justin Trudeau has had to defend as much as his Finance minister, on Wednesday after-noon in the Commons. Bill Morneau is entangled for two days in a ethical controversy on its significant financial assets.

“The minister has worked with the ethics commissioner as soon as 2015 and has followed his advice,” repeated several times the prime minister of Canada, faced a barrage of questions on the topic.

Both the conservatives and neo-democrats have fiercely condemned the fact that the minister Morneau remains a shareholder of a company that will benefit from the bills of the government.

The period gave rise to exchanges and muscular, while Mr. Trudeau has accused the opposition to do politics with this story. “The prime minister is washing his hands of all responsibility when he has not even the decency to demand that his minister respects the law!” thundered the conservative member of parliament Lisa Raitt in striking the fist on his table.

Mr. Trudeau has committed a slip of the tongue noticed, designating a few times to the commissioner the conflict of interest and ethics as the commissioner, “conflict of ethics”. “This is what is called a” guilty!” replied du tac au tac the spokesman for the new democrat ethics, Nathan Cullen.

Mr. Trudeau responded to the place of the minister, is absent due to a trip in New Brunswick.

Loophole in the law

After having been forced to admit earlier this week that he had not placed his shares of the firm of Morneau Sheppell in a blind trust, Bill Morneau was again put in trouble Tuesday night.

The minister would have exploited a loophole in the law and placed its assets to a corporation, has learned of the CTV. This structure is made so that it indirectly holds its shares and that he may avoid the obligation to place them in a blind trust or sell them.

At the time of his election in 2015, Mr. Morneau holds a little over 2 million shares of Morneau Sheppell, assets valued today at more than $40 million.

Requested meeting

The minister Morneau has asked the commissioner to re-evaluate the situation of its significant financial assets, on Tuesday.

“I would like to ask you a new encounter, he asked in a letter addressed to the commissioner. If, in the light of this discussion, you determine that additional measures are needed, such as a blind trust, it is with pleasure that I shall abide under your new guidelines.”

Commissioner Mary Dawson has argued Tuesday not to have asked Bill Morneau to put his assets in a blind trust. “I told him that this was not necessary,” she said.