Review confirmed PM Carney has millions in financial conflicts of interest he knows about with the Brookfield conglomerate, and he illegally enforces part of his so-called “ethics screen” himself, and has likely violated the ethics law

Ethics Commissioner misled the Committee re: loopholes that allow the PM, ministers, Cabinet staff and top government officials to secretly profit from their decisions without any penalties

Many other members of Cabinet, their staff and top government officials have “not-blind” trusts and unethical smokescreens, including Liberal PS Leslie Church who participated behind closed doors in the review of the ethics law

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Thursday, April 16, 2026

OTTAWA – Today, Democracy Watch released its second submission to the House Ethics Committee, which is completing its first review since 2012 of Canada’s federal government ethics law (the Conflict of Interest Act (COIA)) which applies to the Prime Minister, Cabinet ministers, their staff and almost 3,000 of the top Cabinet-appointed federal government officials.  The Committee has met five times behind closed doors for since February 23, 2026 to consider its draft report on recommendations for closing huge loopholes in the COIA and for strengthening enforcement of the law.

Liberal MP Leslie Church is a member of the Ethics Committee and is covered by the COIA’s rules as she is a Parliamentary Secretary (PS), and she has both a so-called “blind trust” and a conflict of interest screen (“ethics screen) established under the COIA (as do several Cabinet ministers, PMO and Cabinet staff and other top government officials).  Despite having this clear conflict of interest, Ms. Church has been participating in the hearings reviewing whether and how the COIA should be changed since last September, including five behind-closed-door meetings on February 23rd, March 12th, March 23rd, March 26th and April 13th.  As a result, she has a secret, inside avenue to further her own and Cabinet’s interests on the Committee.

“It’s dangerously undemocratic and unethical alone to have parliamentary secretaries, who are members of the executive branch Cabinet, sit on House committees which are supposed to operate independently of Cabinet and hold ministers accountable,” said Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch and PhD in ethics, political finance and lobbying law.  “It is even more dangerously undemocratic and unethical when a parliamentary secretary with financial and personal interests covered by the federal Cabinet ethics law participates in a committee’s review of that law that is focused on deciding whether or not to close huge loopholes in the law and strengthen enforcement and penalties for violations.”

Democracy Watch’s testimony before the Ethics Committee on October 1, 2025, and first submission to the Committee in November (en français), called on the Committee to recommend closing a “dirty dozen” unethical loopholes and seven key changes to strengthen enforcement of the COIA.

Key much-needed, long-overdue changes are to: 1. Close two huge loopholes in the COIA that mean it doesn’t apply to 99% of decisions and actions of office holders (it really should be called the “Almost Impossible to be in a Conflict of Interest Act”); 2. Ban “not-blind” trusts and unethical smokescreens and business investments; 3. Establish a sliding scale of mandatory, significant penalties for violations (so people like recent COIA violator Deputy Minister Christiane Fox are not let off without any penalty), and; 4. To make the COIA enforcement system independent, transparent, timely, effective and publicly accountable (it is currently partisan, secretive, slow, ineffective and largely unaccountable).

Similar loopholes exist in the MP Code, but the Senate Code has fewer loopholes than the COIA.  The loopholes in those codes also need to be closed, and enforcement of those codes also needs to be strengthened, including by adding mandatory, significant penalties for violations.  In direct contrast, the Values and Ethics Code and Directive on Conflict of Interest, which the federal Cabinet imposed 30 years ago on all federal government employees (other than the people covered by the COIA), do not have the loopholes in them that the COIA has as they prohibit being in even an apparent conflict of interest (with no exceptions), and section 7 of the Directive sets out significant penalties for violations.  This shows clearly that the loopholes can be closed and penalties added in the COIA.

Democracy Watch’s second submission to the Committee highlights the following key facts that were confirmed by the Committee’s hearings reviewing the COIA since last September, and by DWatch’s own research:

1. Federal Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein misled the Committee three times re: federal ethics rules and re: loopholes in the COIA and MP Code that are not in the ethics codes for federal government employees, and could be easily closed in the COIA (See submission Part I).

2. Prime Minister Mark Carney’s so-called “blind trust” is a complete sham as he knows that he owns millions of dollars of stock options and other investments in Brookfield’s conglomerate of more than 2,000 companies that neither he nor his hand-picked trustee can sell until 2033-2024, and so he has a blatant, significant and ongoing financial conflict of interest until then (which he lied about during last year’s federal election), and he can personally profit from making decisions that affect those companies (See submission Part II).

3. PM Carney’s so-called “ethics screen” is a secretive, unethical smokescreen that he enforces himself, in violation of both the terms of his screen and the COIA, for emails, texts and calls on his cell phone and any discussions or meetings he has outside of the PMO (See submission Part III).

4. PM Carney has not been able to do his job on major issue files almost 50% of the time because of his conflicts of interest. He was prohibited from participating in 6 of 13 major files from federal government departments that were flagged for review under his ethics screen (See submission Part IV).

5. The federal Cabinet office continues to refuse to disclose many details re: whether and how PM Carney’s ethics screens have been enforced (in blatant violation of the federal Access to Information Act), especially exactly how many discussions, decisions and votes have been flagged for Carney conflicts, and how many he has not participated in because of conflicts, for both his initial two, secret, self-imposed and self-administered screens (from March to July 2025) and his Ethics Commissioner-approved screen that has been in force since July 10, 2025 (See submission Part V).

6. From the evidence available, it seems PM Carney has violated the COIA by participating in budget Bill C-15 decisions (which has a tax credit in it that specifically benefits a Brookfield-owned company), and by giving preferential treatment by meeting personally with Brookfield’s COO Justin Beber (See submission Part VI).

7. Again, closing the two biggest loopholes in the COIA, and banning not-blind trusts and unethical smokescreens and business investments, are the top priorities and can be done effectively. The loopholes mean the COIA doesn’t apply to 99% of decisions and actions of office holders, and their sham trusts and screens allow them to secretly profit from their decisions (See submission Part VII).

8. In addition to PM Carney, many other Cabinet ministers, Cabinet staff and top government officials have sham “not-blind” trusts (See submission Part VIII).

9. In addition to PM Carney, many other Cabinet ministers, Cabinet staff and top government officials have so-called “ethics screens” that are unethical smokescreens (See submission Part IX).

“Prime Minister Carney has as many financial conflicts of interest as Donald Trump, and Canada’s federal ethics law and enforcement system are so loophole-filled and weak that Carney is allowed profit from his decisions as much as Trump,” said Conacher. “The weak enforcement system has also failed to prevent Carney from participating in discussions and decisions that the evidence shows violated the federal ethics law.”

“Canada’s political ethics laws and codes for Cabinet ministers, their staff and top government officials are full of loopholes that allow them to secretly profit financially from their decisions, and are weaker than the rules for senators and federal government employees, and as weak as the rules for backbench MPs, which makes no sense at all,” said Conacher.  “Hopefully, the House Ethics Committee will make strong, comprehensive recommendations in its report for key changes to finally close all the loopholes in all federal political ethics laws and codes, and strengthen enforcement and establish mandatory, significant penalties for all violations, so politicians and their staff and top government officials are no longer allowed to make unethical, self-interested decisions or profit from their decisions in secret, and are held publicly accountable and penalized for violations.”

The Conservatives and Bloc together currently have a majority on the Ethics Committee and all other House Committees.  On March 31st, Prime Minister Mark Carney stated publicly that he would not prorogue Parliament or restructure House committees if the Liberals obtained a majority, which they have through dishonest, unethical floor-crossings by five MPs.

Prime Minister Mark Carney also needs to re-enact publicly the PM Code for ministers and their staff covering accountability, ethics, fundraising, relationships with lobbyists etc.  The PM Code sets out very important ethics rules that the Ethics Commissioner has stated repeatedly are enforceable requirements that define in detail key measures in the COIA.  The version of the PM Code on the PM’s website is from November 2015, and Carney has said nothing about it since becoming PM, including nothing in his May 21, 2025 Mandate Letter to Cabinet.  Click here to see details about the PM Code.

“If Prime Minister Carney doesn’t re-enact the code for ministers in his own name, or weakens or cancels it, it will gut Canada’s already weak, loophole-filled government ethics law, and add to his negligently weak record and attitude so far concerning ethics,” said Conacher.

Many other changes are needed to other federal laws to ensure democratic good government, including closing huge secret, unethical lobbying loopholes, decreasing the donation limit in the Canada Elections Act to $75 (as the current annual individual donation limit of $3,550 (which increases by $50 each year) is essentially legalized bribery for those who can afford to make a top donation), closing huge excessive secrecy loopholes in the federal Access to Information Act, and strengthening the whistleblower protection law.

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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