Information Commissioner has ordered Privy Council Office (PCO) to stop violating federal open government law and disclose details by Nov. 18th re: Carney’s Ethics-Commissioner approved ethics screen
PCO continues to hide details about Carney’s initial two self-imposed screens that were in place from March to July 2025
One of dirty dozen loopholes in federal ethics law means PM’s unethical smokescreens allow him to secretly participate in almost all decisions that affect his investments in Brookfield and 655+ other companies
Ethics Commissioner admitted recently PM Carney knows what is in his (not) blind trust, and he didn’t verify companies covered by the PM’s screen, and the PM often enforces his own screen
Because Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Trump, he has (supposedly) been prohibited from doing his job on 25 major federal government policy files – how many other decision-making processes he has participated in even though he has a conflict of interest remains hidden
House Ethics Committee called in April for changes to law to require PM to sell investments and not use a trust (as in Australia), and to disclose screen details
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Friday, November 13, 2026
OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch revealed the recent ruling by the federal Information Commissioner ordering the federal Cabinet Privy Council Office (PCO) to stop violating the Access to Information Act (ATIA) and disclose by November 18th (or, at the latest by December 6th) details, which DWatch requested in September 2025, about whether and how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Ethics Commissioner-approved ethics screen has been enforced and applied to all discussions, decisions, debates and votes (as required by section 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act) since the screen came into force in July 2025.
In a separate but directly related matter, the PCO continues to violate the ATIA by failing to disclose details Democracy Watch requested in a separate request filed on August 28, 2025 about whether and how Prime Minister Mark Carney’s two self-imposed ethics screens he claims he established for himself when he became PM in March 2025 were enforced and applied until July 2025 when his Ethics Commissioner-approved screen came into force. After granting itself an unjustifiable 120-day extension, PCO promised that the requested records would be disclosed by January 25, 2026, 11 months ago. Click here to see the exchange of emails between DWatch and the PCO about the PCO’s ongoing illegal delay in disclosing these requested records.
DWatch’s ATIA requests ask for records that contain the following information:
1. The date the ethics screens came into force;
2. The identities of anyone who has assisted Carney’s Chief of Staff and the Clerk of the PCO to enforce the screen;
3. How many discussions, decision-making processes and votes have occurred?
4. How many were flagged for review under an ethics screen?
5. How many did Carney not participate in because he had a conflict of interest?
PM Carney’s smokescreen has huge loophole in it, and he enforces it himself
When PCO finally discloses the details about the screens, it will be confirmed that PM Carney’s initial two self-imposed ethics screens, and his Ethics-Commissioner-approved, so-called “ethics screen” (which only applies to 103 additional companies that are within or connected to the Brookfield conglomerate of more than 2,000 companies) are loophole-filled, unethical smokescreens that have allowed him to participate in, and hide that he is participating in, almost every decision that affects the companies in which he is invested.
As the Ethics Commissioner-approved screen says explicitly, PM Carney may “participate in a discussion or decision on a matter that is of general application or that affects the Companies’ interests as a member of a broad class of persons unless those interests are disproportionate to the other members of the class.” Almost every decision that the PM participates in is of general application because every law, regulation, tax, subsidy and government program applies generally to many people and/or businesses and/or other types of organizations.
It was also confirmed by the PM’s Chief of Staff Marc André Blanchard when he testified before the Ethics Committee last November that only major government files are screened (p. 9 of hearing transcript), and that PM Carney screens his own emails, calls and texts to his cellphones, and his own discussions and meetings when he is outside of the PMO (pp. 11-13 and 18).
As Democracy Watch detailed to the House of Commons Ethics Committee during its review of the federal government ethics law, the loophole in PM Carney’s screens is one of a “dirty dozen” loopholes in the law (the Conflict of Interest Act (COIA)). Click here to see the loophole in the definition of “private interest” in section 2 of the Act.
The screens also hide the fact that the public office holder is not recusing themselves from decisions even when they have a conflict of interest. Subsection 25(1) of the Act requires a public declaration of recusal every time an office holder recuses themselves, but former Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson created ethics screens to allow office holders to get around that requirement. They set up a screen, claim that they are recusing themselves from most decisions, and then can hide the fact that they are not actually recusing themselves from almost all decisions that affect their financial or other interests.
House Ethics Committee recommended PM be required to sell investments and not use trusts (as is required in Australia), and to disclose screen details
The Ethics Committee recommended in its April 2026 report that the COIA be changed to: require the PM to sell investments in companies instead of placing them in a sham (not) “blind” trust (Recs. 10-12 and 15); require all public office be required to disclose major investments (Rec. 13 – even if they put them in a so-called (not) “blind” trust), and; require the PM and Cabinet ministers to disclose details about the operation of any ethics screen they have (Rec. 14). The Cabinet responded in September by saying it was considering the Committee’s recommendations.
In July 2022, the Australian PM established a new code of conduct that prohibits ministers from owning shares in companies and bans blind trusts. Ministers are only allowed to have investments in pension funds and diversified funds that don’t invest in any business sector that conflicts with the minister’s responsibilities (Code ss. 3.11 to 3.14)
In 1987, Canada’s Parker Commission on conflicts of interest recommended that top politicians and government officials be required to sell all investments, and that blind trusts be banned because they are an ineffective sham. Click here to see Justice Parker’s report (3rd PDF, pages 343-361 (esp. 350-353 and 360-361)).
Ethics Commissioner admits PM’s blind trust is not blind, and that he didn’t verify list of companies in screen, so Carney actually has hundreds more conflicts
Federal Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein admitted, finally after claiming otherwise since July 2025, that PM Carney “of course” knows what business investments are in his (not) blind trust, when testifying on October 28th before the Ethics Committee (hearing video at 16:40:26 and 16:49:36 marks). Click here to see the list of shares in 550+ companies that Mr. Carney owns that he placed in the trust.
The Ethics Commissioner also has admitted that he simply trusted PM Carney to list the 103 additional companies covered by his screen and didn’t do anything to determine whether any other companies in Brookfield’s conglomerate of more than 2,000 companies should have been listed in the PM’s screen (hearing video from 17:00:57 mark to 17:04:53 mark).
As a result, PM Carney actually has hundreds of more financial conflicts of interest based on his investments in more than 550 companies (other than Brookfield) that are not covered by his ethics screen, and possibly many more conflicts with other companies in Brookfield’s conglomerate of 2,000 companies.
“Prime Minister Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Trump, and his blind trust isn’t blind at all because, as the Ethics Commissioner has finally admitted, he knows what investments he put in the trust, including stock options he will definitely own for years,” said Conacher. “The only way to resolve the conflicts is to require the Prime Minister and other ministers and top government officials to sell their investments and to ban blind trusts, as the Parker Commission recommended in 1987 and the Australian PM required in 2022.”
“The federal Cabinet office’s illegal secrecy delay will soon be over, which will finally reveal details showing that, because of a huge loophole in Canada’s federal government ethics law, Prime Minister Carney’s ethics screen is an unethical, loophole-filled smokescreen as it allows him to participate in almost all decisions that affect the companies he is invested in and connected to, and hides the fact that he is participating in those decisions even though he has a financial conflict of interest and can profit from the decisions,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.
Because he has as many conflicts of interest as Trump, Carney supposedly has been prohibited from participating in 25 federal policy-making processes
At Democracy Watch’s urging, the House Ethics Committee pierced Carney’s ethics screen somewhat last fall by requesting that the PCO send the Committee every quarter a very general update on the operation of his screen. The updates are so general that they don’t even identify any of the companies that have caused the PM to have a conflict of interest that prohibited him from participating in a federal policy-making process.
Despite the huge loophole in PM Carney’s ethics screen, and because he has as many conflicts of interest as U.S. President Donald Trump, the PCO’s most recent August 14, 2026 letter to the Committee claims PM Carney has been prohibited by his screen from participating in 25 federal government policy-making processes between July 10, 2025 and July 24, 2026 due to his conflicts of interest.
However, as summarized in the August 14th letter, PCO has only disclosed to the Committee general information about 11 of the 25 processes that the PM was supposedly not even made aware of and about which he was prohibited from doing his job as PM. The PCO’s previous updates were in a November 26, 2025 letter; a February 13, 2026 letter, and; a May 15, 2026 letter. As the August 14th letter states, the next letter to the Committee is due November 15th.
PM Carney is likely aware of conflicted policy processes, ministers etc. share his conflicts, and smokescreen hides his participation in many other decisions
The PCO claims that PM Carney was not even made aware of the 11 situations summarized in its letters so far, and that he is unaware of the other 14 ongoing processes, even though he heads up the federal Cabinet, appoints all Cabinet ministers, appoints the members of and oversees all Cabinet committees, and is chair of the Cabinet’s Priorities, Planning and Strategy Committee and the National Security Council. And, again, the PM enforces his own ethics screen for calls, texts and emails to his personal cell phones, and for discussions and meetings when he is outside the PMO, so he could easily learn about any of those 25 processes.
Even if PM Carney has been unaware of these 25 policy-making processes, for the screen to work every Cabinet minister, PMO and PCO and ministerial staff person, and all other top government officials, all of whom are chosen by and serve at Carney’s pleasure and can be demoted or fired by him for any reason, would have to be informed that the PM has a conflict, and what the conflict is, and that they cannot communicate with him in any way about any of the 25 processes. As a result, they all know how to shape the policy decision to help the companies the PM is invested in or connected to in some way. In other words, because they all serve at PM Carney’s pleasure, they all share his conflict of interest.
In addition, the PCO’s letters do not disclose how many other discussions, decisions and votes PM Carney has been allowed to participate in, even when he has a conflict of interest, because of the loophole in the COIA that allows him to participate in any decision that applies generally. So even though the Committee has required the PCO to send it quarterly disclosure letters, his smokescreen is still hiding his participation in many discussions, decisions and votes.
The PCO’s disclosure of records in response to DWatch’s ATIA requests should, if the PCO actually complies with the ATIA finally, reveal how many discussions, decisions and votes PM Carney has been allowed to participate in since March 2025 even when he has a conflict of interest.
– 30 –
FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch
Tel: (613) 241-5179
Cell: 416-546-3443
Email: [email protected]
Democracy Watch’s Government Ethics Campaign and Open Government Campaign
