Juno News - Carney pressed on sending billions to Bermuda

00:00:00.000 Liberal leader Mark Carney was hard-pressed to answer why he oversaw sending billions

00:00:09.540 in Canadian investments to offshore accounts in Bermuda while he worked with Brookfield

00:00:15.040 Asset Management. A recently announced Liberal candidate has a history as a climate activist

00:00:21.640 advocating for the carbon tax and calling for an end to the oil and gas industry.

00:00:26.840 Canadian border officials do not have the tools necessary to crack down on illicit tobacco

00:00:32.120 trafficking and organized crime. Hello Canada, it's Friday, March 28th and this is the True North

00:00:37.800 Daily Brief. I'm Cosmin Georgia. And I'm Clayton Demain. We've got you covered with all the news

00:00:43.380 you need to know. Let's discuss the top stories of the day and the True North exclusives you won't

00:00:49.240 hear anywhere else. Liberal leader Mark Carney defended his decision to invest billions of dollars

00:00:58.560 into offshore bank accounts in Bermuda on behalf of Brookfield Asset Management by saying he understands

00:01:05.800 how the world works. Carney came under fire from reports for placing exorbitant sums managed by his

00:01:12.800 former company into offshore bank accounts which enabled investors to avoid paying taxes. When asked

00:01:19.040 by a reporter whether he thought his actions were ethical Carney responded by saying that he quote

00:01:24.400 understands how the world works and is well versed in global finance. According to information obtained

00:01:30.480 by Radio Canada Carney's former role as a co-chair for Brookfield saw him investing funds worth 25 billion

00:01:37.920 dollars into offshore bank accounts in Bermuda and elsewhere. The funds were for net zero carbon

00:01:44.240 economy projects which allowed investors to enjoy the perks that come with harboring vast wealth in tax

00:01:50.720 havens. Carney was further pressed on what the advantage was of first funneling the money through Bermuda

00:01:56.880 and his response left many puzzled. I understand how the world works and the structure works and

00:02:03.200 uh have the uh ability to put in place uh all of the necessary rules to ensure that the appropriate

00:02:13.520 taxes are paid here in Canada as is the case in the example that you just gave. The taxes are paid

00:02:18.160 they are paid here in Canada.

00:02:20.400 Okay, d'accord, ensuite.

00:02:22.240 Hi Mr Carney, Tom Parry with CBC. Could I just follow up on that? Could you explain in that in the case of

00:02:27.360 those Brookfield funds like what was the argument for registering the funds in Bermuda?

00:02:32.800 Is it ethical to do that? And is it something as prime minister that you'd have to crack down on?

00:02:38.080 I'm not sure if it's a problem but is that something that you'd have to crack down on?

00:02:40.560 I think the important thing uh Tom is that the flow through of the funds go to the

00:02:47.200 go to Canadian entities who then pay the uh pay the taxes appropriately as opposed to taxes being paid

00:02:53.520 multiple times uh before they get there. So that's how we have the structure that's the structure that

00:02:59.680 all of our pension funds, par exemple uh the caisse de peau uh or Ontario teachers or OMERS municipal

00:03:07.280 employees or all the big pension funds in Canada which are very successful which protect uh union

00:03:14.480 workers in many cases I'm speaking of union workers today and supply to them. Financial assets and his

00:03:20.800 dealings with Brookfield have been a thorn in Carney's side since he first entered the liberal leadership

00:03:26.560 place after he repeatedly refused opportunities to disclose his own finances. This has become a

00:03:32.880 reoccurring issue for Carney and we're about well into the first week of the federal election campaign

00:03:41.520 and it keeps rearing its head and he's constantly asked by reporters by the opposition about his

00:03:48.240 finances. Now Clayton how has conservative leader Pierre Polyev reacted to Carney's refusals to disclose

00:03:56.560 his own assets and existing business ties? So Polyev decided to set an example for Carney after announcing that he

00:04:04.640 sold all of his investments in foreign economies and reinvested more into the Canadian economy. In a statement

00:04:13.120 Polyev's team said he updated the ethics commissioner on the changes to his investments which will be

00:04:20.160 confirmed by the commissioner's office after the election. But uh before that before the ethics commissioner will

00:04:28.240 have that um report for Canadians to to read. Polyev shared his current investments with city news

00:04:36.560 journalist Glenn McGregor who then shared the list of investments along with their descriptions. So in

00:04:43.120 other words Polyev shared his updated list of investments before being required to do so by the law

00:04:49.360 which should add some pressure to Carney to do the same. So Polyev's updated list included investments into

00:04:56.960 two separate Vanguard index funds which invest into the Canadian economy and into Purpose Bitcoin ETF which

00:05:05.360 is a registered Canadian Bitcoin fund. Polyev also holds 5,674 US dollars worth of Bitcoin. His top stocks

00:05:16.240 are reportedly now in RBC, Shopify, TD Bank, Enbridge and Brookfield Corp with a small amount in Brookfield

00:05:25.280 asset management. The Canadian investment firm that Carney formally chaired. He listed the foreign investments

00:05:32.560 he previously held as well in a company called iShares MSCI which was in Singapore and Switzerland and he

00:05:41.920 divested from non-Canadian investments in Vanguard as well and from the American Century investment. So that's

00:05:50.160 obviously a US investment company which he had divested from due to the tariff spat with Trump.

00:05:59.680 The Liberal Party has acclaimed an outspoken oil and gas activist to represent a central Ontario

00:06:06.960 riding despite recently advocating for a fossil fuel ban and pushing for a carbon tax. On Wednesday,

00:06:14.000 the Liberal Party acclaimed family physician Dr. Neal Thomas in the Halliburton Coortha Lakes riding.

00:06:21.200 Thomas is a long-time climate activist who frequently posts about her disdain for Canada's energy industry

00:06:28.240 and Conservatives. Just over a week before the Liberal Party appointed Thomas as the candidate for Halliburton

00:06:34.560 Coortha Lakes, she shared a petition urging Liberal leader Mark Carney to build a quote,

00:06:40.560 people's power grid for renewable energy instead of investing in pipeline projects. In the post she

00:06:47.920 wrote quote, tell PM Carney to champion a people's power grid and deliver bold action on affordability,

00:06:55.120 climate and energy independence in the face of US aggression. The petition from the left-wing

00:07:00.560 environmentalist advocacy organization 350 Canada falls on the federal government to create a nationalized

00:07:07.840 energy corporation, expand renewable energy production and reject oil and natural gas projects

00:07:15.680 and pipelines. In January, Thomas attended a climate protest affiliated with 350 Canada in Halliburton,

00:07:22.000 Ontario, where she gave a speech calling for a global carbon tax and praised its efficacy.

00:07:28.320 We must dial back the heat track we are on by increasing the price on greenhouse gas emissions globally. Guess what,

00:07:40.640 that's a carbon tax because it works to increase awareness and reduce use and we must simultaneously

00:07:48.880 provide abundant affordable dispatchable clean energy. Among other things Mr. Hanson calls for young

00:07:56.320 young people, where are the young people to grasp the situation and reset their behaviors. But we need to set the

00:08:04.320 examples. Get on board. They, young people don't have a choice. She also called on all Canadian policy makers to

00:08:14.640 move towards immediately banning the consumption of all fossil fuels. So Cosmin, are there any other liberal

00:08:21.440 candidates who have a past as climate activists or have advocated for anti-energy development policies?

00:08:28.880 Right. So the most recent one I can think of is former Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, who was announced

00:08:35.920 by the Liberals as a star candidate. Now he was mayor of Vancouver for about 10 years. But while he was in

00:08:42.400 charge of the city, he made a name for himself as a staunch opponent of energy development. While Vancouver's mayor,

00:08:49.280 he spent hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars on consultants to fight the Trans Mountain pipeline

00:08:54.480 expansion, called it a disastrous risk, and even supported protests against the Trans Mountain

00:09:02.160 pipeline expansion. As well as natural gas, he championed policies to ban it in Vancouver by 2050,

00:09:08.640 policies which are being put in place in other cities today, long before Ottawa even floated such

00:09:14.960 proposals or became a fad, so to speak. So his tenure as mayor reflects a deep hostility towards Canada's

00:09:23.040 resource sector, especially as a mayor of a British Columbian city, since British Columbia relies so

00:09:29.760 heavily on natural resources for its economic development. But there's also just Mark Carney himself,

00:09:35.920 right, as liberal leader. And before, when he was the governor of Bank of England, for years,

00:09:42.240 he was the global face of pushing carbon pricing. And we explore this in our series, Mark Carney's

00:09:48.800 Values, where we dived into his 2021 book. But as a former governor of the Bank of Canada, and also the

00:09:56.800 UN climate envoy, if I might add, he pushed carbon taxes as the backbone of climate policy. And in his

00:10:03.520 book, he called carbon pricing the essential tool for net zero governance. And he even praised Trudeau's

00:10:09.680 carbon tax as a model for the world. Yet now we know, when he's seeking political power, he's promised

00:10:15.920 to repeal the consumer carbon tax. But in actuality, he's only reduced it to zero, while the legislation

00:10:23.280 still remains in place. So both of these figures, Robertson and Carney himself, the leader of the

00:10:28.880 party showcase how there's a lot of people who still support carbon taxes and the environmental

00:10:34.400 policies of the Trudeau government still in the Carney Liberals today.

00:10:42.800 With the majority of contraband tobacco entering Canada from the US, Canadian border officials are

00:10:48.320 ill-equipped to tackle the issue, allowing organized crime groups to take advantage of enforcement gaps.

00:10:54.400 Danny Fournier, senior manager of illicit trade prevention for Rothmans, Benson & Hedges,

00:11:00.240 Canada is calling for heightened security measures to combat the illicit tobacco trade and its

00:11:05.200 production, which fuels organized crime groups operating within Canada. Fournier was the recipient

00:11:11.600 of the governor general of Canada's police exemplary service medal with over 25 years of law enforcement

00:11:17.520 experience, where he oversaw organized crime, contraband tobacco, and drug enforcement operations.

00:11:23.840 In an interview with True North at a conference on preventing illicit online trade,

00:11:28.080 Fournier said organized crime counts on the contraband tobacco market to stay alive. Fournier explained

00:11:34.000 that as long as criminal organizations can make easy money from trafficking illegal tobacco,

00:11:39.280 public safety will suffer. He said the majority of contraband tobacco comes across the border from

00:11:44.800 the US to supply illegal manufacturers here in Canada. Fournier said he thinks the federal government

00:11:50.960 should increase the product vetting capabilities of the Canadian Border Services Agency,

00:11:55.840 and give the RCMP more of a role in tobacco enforcement. Though busts occur where tobacco is the only

00:12:01.840 contraband seized, unmarked cigarettes and tobacco products are often confiscated alongside drugs

00:12:07.840 and guns, including deadly narcotics like fentanyl. Fournier warns consumers that any tobacco product that

00:12:15.120 doesn't have a marked filter has colorful packaging or simply comes in a big ziploc bag is considered

00:12:23.120 contraband and likely has been sourced by organized crime groups such as the Italian Mafia in Montreal.

00:12:29.760 Clayton, you attended this conference there in Toronto. What were some of the other concerns raised about

00:12:36.080 this issue by participants? Yeah, so the tobacco company created a method to report illicit trade online

00:12:44.000 to sales platforms and law enforcement. So the private company, of course, focuses on making sure

00:12:50.240 illegal tobacco products aren't cutting into their market. But while scanning the internet for these

00:12:55.520 posts, they often come across a ton of other illegal sales, including guns and drugs such as fentanyl and

00:13:02.480 cocaine. And Fournier mentioned that because of the lax rules or the lack of enforcement, rather, these

00:13:10.640 sellers are becoming very brazen, including selling openly multiple rifles on various marketplaces like

00:13:20.800 Kijiji or Facebook marketplace. So he noted that traditional law enforcement is just unequipped to deal with

00:13:29.440 illegal activities online because it lacks a sustained online presence. Enforcement wasn't designed around the

00:13:36.720 internet. So there's a lot of gaps there. Another issue brought up was that there aren't clear definitions of

00:13:43.520 things such as the allowable limit for personal use of non-smoke products such as ZIN. So even when law enforcement

00:13:51.520 does come across large amounts of ZIN, it's hard to discern what amount the government actually bans. So they often let the perp

00:13:59.280 go. More importantly to most Canadians, he highlighted the fact that wherever organized crime operates,

00:14:06.480 other crimes go up, running public safety, but also the drugs being imported by these groups. Often they are

00:14:13.200 imported in the same truck as illicit tobacco products. But these drugs help fuel overdose deaths in

00:14:19.440 Canada, especially as it pertains to opioids such as fentanyl. I also spoke with a representative of Canada's

00:14:26.240 convenience store owners and Kothawala. And she told me that government bans on tobacco products

00:14:33.280 used to lower the risk of tobacco or get people off of it, such as nicotine pouches,

00:14:38.720 just drive Canadians to illegal markets. Also high taxes on products mean licensed stores sell less and

00:14:46.240 Canadians end up going online or even to and probably more frequently to First Nations retailers where they

00:14:53.200 buy untaxed tobacco, which is of course illegal for non-Indigenous status Canadians to buy.

00:14:59.280 She said when convenience stores are forced to sell less, many have to close their doors. And of

00:15:05.600 course, convenience stores are in every federal riding and with their closures would come and do

00:15:12.000 continue to come as their closures rise impacts to the Canadian economy. So the Liberal government's

00:15:18.320 high taxes and steep regulations are actually driving funds into the hands of organized criminals,

00:15:24.640 such as the Italian mafia in Montreal was noted at the conference and to continue their operations

00:15:31.440 across the border and into Canada. That's it for today, folks. Thanks for tuning in. You can stay on top

00:15:40.240 of new episodes every weekday by subscribing to The Daily Brief on iTunes and Spotify. Also, while you're at

00:15:46.800 it, make sure to hit us with a five-star rating and please leave a review.

Juno News - March 28, 2025

Carney pressed on sending billions to Bermuda

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