Connect with us
[bsa_pro_ad_space id=12]

National

Question Period : Barrett vs. Carney Clash Over Offshore Investments

Published

9 minute read

The Opposition with Dan Knight Dan Knight's avatar Dan Knight

Prime Minister faces questions over blind trust and past ties to tax havens, as Conservatives demand greater financial transparency on day one of the 45th Parliament.

On the very first day of the 45th Parliament, Canadians witnessed a spectacle that was as revealing as it was disturbing. Conservative MP Michael Barrett stood up and did what any responsible representative should do: he asked Prime Minister Mark Carney to come clean about his offshore investments and potential conflicts of interest. But instead of facing the music, Carney pulled a classic elitist maneuver—he hid behind his House Leader, who delivered a canned response full of platitudes and devoid of substance.

This wasn’t just a missed opportunity for transparency; it was a calculated evasion. Carney, the former banker who helped Brookfield Asset Management establish funds in Bermuda and the Cayman Islands, is now Canada’s Prime Minister. And when pressed about whether any of his investments were previously held in tax havens, he couldn’t even muster the courage to answer for himself. Instead, he let a subordinate deflect with talk of “stringent ethics guidelines” and “economic priorities.” Meanwhile, Canadians are struggling to afford basic necessities, and they deserve to know if their leader is playing by the same rules—or any rules at all.

Barrett—one of the few people in Ottawa actually doing his job—didn’t hold back. As Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, he called out Prime Minister Mark Carney for what appears to be a massive financial shell game. The accusation? That Carney, during his time as a high-flying executive at Brookfield Asset Management, helped funnel billions into offshore tax havens—Bermuda, the Caymans, you name it—and then conveniently tucked those assets away in a so-called “blind trust” right before stepping into public office.

Barrett’s message was simple and devastating: “Canadians are lined up at food banks in record numbers. They can’t pay their rent, but they are paying their taxes.” Meanwhile, the guy running their government may have spent years helping billionaires avoid paying theirs. Barrett demanded straight answers: Were any of Carney’s current holdings, now supposedly out of sight, previously parked in these offshore tax shelters? And what exactly was he sitting on when he walked into that first cabinet meeting?

The allegations stem from Carney’s role as chairman of Brookfield from 2020 to January 2025, where he co-chaired funds worth $25 billion registered in Bermuda and a $5 billion fund in the Cayman Islands, according to CBC News reports. These arrangements, which reportedly allowed Brookfield to avoid $5.3 billion in taxes, have drawn scrutiny amid Canada’s economic challenges, including rising food bank usage and housing affordability issues.

In response, the Liberal government House Leader defended Carney, dismissing Barrett’s questions as “hypotheticals and conjured scenarios.” “The Prime Minister has followed all the rules even before they were required,” the House Leader stated, emphasizing that Carney’s blind trust complies with Canada’s “stringent ethics guidelines.” The response pivoted to the government’s agenda, citing efforts to create “the strongest economy in the G7,” reduce taxes, and build new homes, while accusing the opposition of “digging dirt on day one.” The House Leader’s retort, “Shame on them,” drew murmurs of support from Liberal benches.

Undeterred, Barrett doubled down, arguing that Canadians “don’t want an explanation on how to bend over backwards to fit through ethical loopholes.” He called for assurance that Carney’s actions go “above just the basic minimum standard,” referencing a decade of perceived Liberal ethical lapses. “Can he stand up and assure Canadians that none of the funds he had previously were held in offshore tax havens?” Barrett asked, pressing for specifics on Carney’s financial holdings.

The Liberal response reiterated Carney’s compliance, with the House Leader asserting, “Canada has among the most stringent ethics guidelines in the world… The Prime Minister is busy creating opportunity for Canada, standing up in a trade war against the United States.” The deflection, focusing on economic priorities and dismissing the opposition’s probe as a distraction, left Barrett’s core questions unanswered, fueling Conservative claims of evasion.

This entire exchange isn’t just about one question or one day—it’s part of a much larger and very necessary effort by Conservatives to expose something Canadians are starting to see with painful clarity: Mark Carney is not one of them. He’s not scraping to make rent. He’s not standing in a food bank line. He’s not worried about carbon taxes or grocery bills. He’s a Davos man, parachuted into the Prime Minister’s Office by the same Liberal elite that gave us Justin Trudeau. Different face. Same contempt.

Barrett’s takedown of Carney over offshore tax havens hit a nerve, and rightly so. According to Canadians for Tax Fairness, this country loses a jaw-dropping $30 billion every year to offshore tax avoidance. That’s money that working Canadians pay so the elite can squirrel away their wealth in places like Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. And Carney? He helped orchestrate it. As a top dog at Brookfield Asset Management, he didn’t just benefit from the system—he helped design it. And if that wasn’t enough, under his leadership, Brookfield moved its headquarters from Toronto to New York. In the middle of growing trade tensions with President Trump’s America. That’s not leadership—it’s betrayal.

And how does Carney justify all this? With the most nauseating phrase in the English language: “It was legal.” Oh, well, as long as the loopholes were big enough to drive a luxury yacht through, I guess we’re fine. He claims these “tax-efficient” strategies helped pensioners and that his blind trust protects him from conflicts. Right. Because what better way to gain public trust than hiding your financial interests in a vault and telling voters, “Just trust me”?

Barrett and the Conservatives aren’t buying it—and neither should you. They’re calling for real reform, tougher disclosure rules, and an end to the wink-wink, nudge-nudge ethics games that the Liberals have been playing for a decade. Carney delayed his financial disclosures during his leadership run? Of course he did. That’s not transparency. That’s strategy. And Canadians know it.

Even the so-called experts are noticing the shift. One analyst noted Barrett’s attacks are landing with voters because they’re the ones who are actually suffering. Meanwhile, the Liberals want to pivot to their so-called “economic wins.” Great. Tell that to the family paying $7 for lettuce or the trucker trying to fuel his rig with gas prices through the roof.

As Parliament gets underway, we’re heading into a full-blown war over ethics and economic justice. And the question for Carney is simple: Is he going to answer for his record—or is he going to keep hiding behind the same smug Liberal arrogance that Canadians are sick and tired of?

The people are watching. The mask is off. And Mark Carney has a choice: come clean—or be dragged into the sunlight.

Subscribe to The Opposition with Dan Knight .

For the full experience, upgrade your subscription.

Todayville is a digital media and technology company. We profile unique stories and events in our community. Register and promote your community event for free.

Follow Author

Business

Mark Carney’s Fiscal Fantasy Will Bankrupt Canada

Published on

By Gwyn Morgan

Mark Carney was supposed to be the adult in the room. After nearly a decade of runaway spending under Justin Trudeau, the former central banker was presented to Canadians as a steady hand – someone who could responsibly manage the economy and restore fiscal discipline.

Instead, Carney has taken Trudeau’s recklessness and dialled it up. His government’s recently released spending plan shows an increase of 8.5 percent this fiscal year to $437.8 billion. Add in “non-budgetary spending” such as EI payouts, plus at least $49 billion just to service the burgeoning national debt and total spending in Carney’s first year in office will hit $554.5 billion.

Even if tax revenues were to remain level with last year – and they almost certainly won’t given the tariff wars ravaging Canadian industry – we are hurtling toward a deficit that could easily exceed 3 percent of GDP, and thus dwarf our meagre annual economic growth. It will only get worse. The Parliamentary Budget Officer estimates debt interest alone will consume $70 billion annually by 2029. Fitch Ratings recently warned of Canada’s “rapid and steep fiscal deterioration”, noting that if the Liberal program is implemented total federal, provincial and local debt would rise to 90 percent of GDP.

This was already a fiscal powder keg. But then Carney casually tossed in a lit match. At June’s NATO summit, he pledged to raise defence spending to 2 percent of GDP this fiscal year – to roughly $62 billion. Days later, he stunned even his own caucus by promising to match NATO’s new 5 percent target. If he and his Liberal colleagues follow through, Canada’s defence spending will balloon to the current annual equivalent of $155 billion per year. There is no plan to pay for this. It will all go on the national credit card.

This is not “responsible government.” It is economic madness.

And it’s happening amid broader economic decline. Business investment per worker – a key driver of productivity and living standards – has been shrinking since 2015. The C.D. Howe Institute warns that Canadian workers are increasingly “underequipped compared to their peers abroad,” making us less competitive and less prosperous.

The problem isn’t a lack of money; it’s a lack of discipline and vision. We’ve created a business climate that punishes investment: high taxes, sluggish regulatory processes, and politically motivated uncertainty. Carney has done nothing to reverse this. If anything, he’s making the situation worse.

Recall the 2008 global financial meltdown. Carney loves to highlight his role as Bank of Canada Governor during that time but the true credit for steering the country through the crisis belongs to then-prime minister Stephen Harper and his finance minister, Jim Flaherty. Facing the pressures of a minority Parliament, they made the tough decisions that safeguarded Canada’s fiscal foundation. Their disciplined governance is something Carney would do well to emulate.

Instead, he’s tearing down that legacy. His recent $4.3 billion aid pledge to Ukraine, made without parliamentary approval, exemplifies his careless approach. And his self-proclaimed image as the experienced technocrat who could go eyeball-to-eyeball against Trump is starting to crack. Instead of respecting Carney, Trump is almost toying with him, announcing in June, for example that the U.S. would pull out of the much-ballyhooed bilateral trade talks launched at the G7 Summit less than two weeks earlier.

Ordinary Canadians will foot the bill for Carney’s fiscal mess. The dollar has weakened. Young Canadians – already priced out of the housing market – will inherit a mountain of debt. This is not stewardship. It’s generational theft.

Some still believe Carney will pivot – that he will eventually govern sensibly. But nothing in his actions supports that hope. A leader serious about economic renewal would cancel wasteful Trudeau-era programs, streamline approvals for energy and resource projects, and offer incentives for capital investment. Instead, we’re getting more borrowing and ideological showmanship.

It’s no longer credible to say Carney is better than Trudeau. He’s worse. Trudeau at least pretended deficits were temporary. Carney has made them permanent – and more dangerous.

This is a betrayal of the fiscal stability Canadians were promised. If we care about our credit rating, our standard of living, or the future we are leaving our children, we must change course.

That begins by removing a government unwilling – or unable – to do the job.

Canada once set an economic example for others. Those days are gone. The warning signs – soaring debt, declining productivity, and diminished global standing – are everywhere. Carney’s defenders may still hope he can grow into the job. Canada cannot afford to wait and find out.

The original, full-length version of this article was recently published in C2C Journal.

Gwyn Morgan is a retired business leader who was a director of five global corporations.

Continue Reading

Business

Carney Liberals quietly award Pfizer, Moderna nearly $400 million for new COVID shot contracts

Published on

From LifeSiteNews

By Clare Marie Merkowsky

Carney’s Liberal government signed nearly $400 million in contracts with Pfizer and Moderna for COVID shots, despite halted booster programs and ongoing delays in compensating Canadians for jab injuries.

Prime Minister Mark Carney has awarded Pfizer and Moderna nearly $400 million in new COVID shot contracts.

On June 30th, the Liberal government quietly signed nearly $400 million contracts with vaccine companies Pfizer and Moderna for COVID jabs, despite thousands of Canadians waiting to receive compensation for COVID shot injuries.

The contracts, published on the Government of Canada website, run from June 30, 2025, until March 31, 2026. Under the contracts, taxpayers must pay $199,907,418.00 to both companies for their COVID shots.

Notably, there have been no press releases regarding the contracts on the Government of Canada website nor from Carney’s official office.

Additionally, the contracts were signed after most Canadians provinces halted their COVID booster shot programs. At the same time, many Canadians are still waiting to receive compensation from COVID shot injuries.

Canada’s Vaccine Injury Support Program (VISP) was launched in December 2020 after the Canadian government gave vaccine makers a shield from liability regarding COVID-19 jab-related injuries.

There has been a total of 3,317 claims received, of which only 234 have received payments. In December, the Canadian Department of Health warned that COVID shot injury payouts will exceed the $75 million budget.

The December memo is the last public update that Canadians have received regarding the cost of the program. However, private investigations have revealed that much of the funding is going in the pockets of administrators, not injured Canadians.

A July report by Global News discovered that Oxaro Inc., the consulting company overseeing the VISP, has received $50.6 million. Of that fund, $33.7 million has been spent on administrative costs, compared to only $16.9 million going to vaccine injured Canadians.

The PHAC’s downplaying of jab injuries is of little surprise to Canadians, as a 2023 secret memo revealed that the federal government purposefully hid adverse effect so as not to alarm Canadians.

The secret memo from former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Privy Council Office noted that COVID jab injuries and even deaths “have the potential to shake public confidence.”

“Adverse effects following immunization, news reports and the government’s response to them have the potential to shake public confidence in the COVID-19 vaccination rollout,” read a part of the memo titled “Testing Behaviourally Informed Messaging in Response to Severe Adverse Events Following Immunization.”

Instead of alerting the public, the secret memo suggested developing “winning communication strategies” to ensure the public did not lose confidence in the experimental injections.

Since the start of the COVID crisis, official data shows that the virus has been listed as the cause of death for less than 20 children in Canada under age 15. This is out of six million children in the age group.

The COVID jabs approved in Canada have also been associated with severe side effects, such as blood clots, rashes, miscarriages, and even heart attacks in young, healthy men.

Additionally, a recent study done by researchers with Canada-based Correlation Research in the Public Interest showed that 17 countries have found a “definite causal link” between peaks in all-cause mortality and the fast rollouts of the COVID shots, as well as boosters.

Interestingly, while the Department of Health has spent $16 million on injury payouts, the Liberal government spent $54 million COVID propaganda promoting the shot to young Canadians.

The Public Health Agency of Canada especially targeted young Canadians ages 18-24 because they “may play down the seriousness of the situation.”

Continue Reading

Trending

X