Juno News - August 11, 2026


Why is Mark Carney in Italy right now？


Episode Stats


Length

10 minutes

Words per minute

180.68

Word count

1,891

Sentence count

80

Harmful content

Toxicity

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Prime Minister Carney's latest trip to Europe is under scrutiny, given the timing of it.
00:00:10.000 According to the Prime Minister's office, Carney is taking some personal time in Italy.
00:00:15.000 This comes at a critical period for trade negotiations between Canada and the United States.
00:00:21.000 According to a release from his office, Carney will remain in close contact with his team on those priorities.
00:00:29.000 He says this is being done in consultation with the Ethics Commissioner.
00:00:34.380 Well, Joe Warmington has some thoughts.
00:00:36.660 Long-time journalist and columnist with the Toronto Sun.
00:00:39.700 Welcome, Joe.
00:00:40.680 Yeah, good to be with you.
00:00:41.800 I'm in Mississauga, unfortunately, not Tuscany, but that's okay, I guess.
00:00:47.460 I mean, it's...
00:00:49.440 Yeah, Tuscany is nice, but it's hotter on this time of year.
00:00:52.340 It's better than being in the food bank lines, which is where many Canadians are right now.
00:00:57.660 And also, you know, there's many losing their jobs and things like that.
00:01:01.780 And the prime minister's off at Tuscany.
00:01:04.780 So why Tuscany, do you think?
00:01:06.800 Well, I don't know.
00:01:07.520 I mean, it's a good question.
00:01:08.620 I did ask that of his office and also of the ethics commissioner because, as you could see in that email that they sent out to the press gallery, the parliamentary press gallery,
00:01:19.740 in that it says that they had this pre-approved with the ethics commissioner.
00:01:24.580 And, of course, that, for anybody that's been around a little while, remember when Prime Minister Trudeau would go on his jaunts, paid for by us, and he got nailed on that when he went to that island that belonged to the Aga Khan, and there was ethics violation issues with that.
00:01:40.560 Of course, nothing ever stuck to Trudeau, but it still happened, and one of them was, you know, how he got onto the island, that kind of thing, and, you know, the ethics of it.
00:01:51.160 So he went ahead of time, this time, Prime Minister Kearney, to ask if he could go.
00:01:56.960 But, you know, we're supposed to ask as reporters, and this is not personal.
00:02:01.340 We, you know, great, have a great trip.
00:02:02.820 If you pay for it yourself, then do what you want.
00:02:06.160 But since the taxpayers are paying for it, and my colleague Brian Passifium found that the Canadian airplane that he takes is actually in Tuscany right now.
00:02:15.140 So, you know, what's he doing there?
00:02:18.060 And why there?
00:02:19.000 And who's he meeting with, potentially?
00:02:21.160 um things like that is there a gift involved because in the aga khan case uh that was
00:02:29.400 perceived as a gift and so you can't help but wonder whether or not there's a gift involved
00:02:34.860 in this trip somehow uh it's worth asking the question i mean we're not suggesting that there
00:02:41.060 is i mean the you know he comes out of the brookfield uh family and that's where uh the
00:02:47.960 CEO of Brookfield, the corporation
00:02:50.420 of it, Bruce
00:02:52.060 Flatt is a billionaire. He's a Canadian originally
00:02:54.180 from Winnipeg. I don't think people 1.00
00:02:56.240 know his name.
00:02:57.780 Very successful head of Brookfield
00:03:00.080 and he, when
00:03:01.940 Carney became Prime Minister, he assumed
00:03:04.240 the role of chair,
00:03:06.060 which is where Carney was.
00:03:08.300 He lives in Tuscany. Nudge, nudge,
00:03:10.160 wink, wink.
00:03:11.340 Is it possible that they'll
00:03:14.200 see each other? Is he going to his
00:03:16.200 uh you know villa there i'm not saying he is and i'm not saying it's wrong that he is
00:03:21.280 the ethics commissioner says that it's been cleared what i am saying and i think it's our
00:03:27.200 responsibility as so-called journalists if that's what we are in this era i don't know anymore
00:03:32.660 it seems like we're supposed to just repeat and report what the press release says but those of
00:03:38.700 us that come from a different vintage we say okay well that's a nice release uh you know what's
00:03:44.380 what's going on here what uh why did you clear it and who's he meeting with he says right in the
00:03:49.560 release to the reporters that he cleared it so what was it that was the issue that he was concerned
00:03:55.300 about that he went to there to see it is it bruised flat uh he meeting with or someone else
00:04:01.620 uh and why tuscany i mean we've got fires burning so maybe he can't go to some parts of bc
00:04:07.660 or northern ontario a lot of other nice places uh you know across the country where he could do
00:04:13.720 vacationing. And again, I don't begrudge a Prime Minister of Vacation and his family to have one.
00:04:20.060 But when it's, you know, he's saying, well, no, no, I'm kind of working, I'm close to my team.
00:04:24.940 While he's meeting supposedly with Trump to figure out the future of Canada,
00:04:29.340 you know, he talks about this new world order, and there he is in Tuscany.
00:04:32.420 So when Rome is burning, you know, he's in Tuscany.
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00:05:47.460 Yeah, I mean, we're entering the realm
00:05:51.260 of the speculative here.
00:05:53.180 But if Flatt is in Tuscany
00:05:56.020 and Carney were to stay at his residence in Tuscany,
00:06:02.280 then that would possibly entail a matter
00:06:04.840 for the ethics commissioner to either say yay or nay to because that would be the acceptance of a
00:06:10.580 gift and that would certainly explain why the ethics commissioner was consulted on this matter
00:06:16.580 but again we don't know unless we eventually hear directly from well carney on this you know i i
00:06:24.460 guess i i agree with you and i asked that question of the ethics commissioner and also his name is
00:06:30.260 conrad von fingstein yes i know i know him well tell me about him the big prussian man older
00:06:40.340 gentleman um he was at the crtc when i was there and you've ever had a six foot five prussian
00:06:53.140 glaring down at you because of something he did or said it's an experience that i would recommend
00:06:59.620 just to say you did it well you know he could come and do that to me if he wants to
00:07:04.500 uh he works for us uh he may think he's big and strong and powerful and he may think that he has
00:07:10.900 the power to go ahead and clear this vacation and i'm i'm glad that he he's looking into it
00:07:16.020 but i won't be intimidated because he's six foot five or he's prussian he works for us and of course
00:07:21.860 he does and our job is to ask him a question of what it was that he had in front of him to determine
00:07:29.140 why the prime minister at a time when the country's on fire went to tuscany when everybody else is in
00:07:34.420 food bank lines and can't afford to pay their mortgages i don't care what he says he can audit
00:07:39.620 me he can beat me up he's big but he works for us and we work for the public and that's the end of
00:07:46.980 the story these guys are treating this country like it's theirs and the money's theirs and the
00:07:51.140 plane is theirs you know there's been millions of dollars spent on catering to go to places like this
00:07:55.860 but people are starving here so end of story on this guy and how big he is i don't give a
00:08:02.020 damn how big he is he works for the canadian public and his job is to tell us exactly what
00:08:08.020 the prime minister is doing where he is who he's meeting with and why he's meeting with them end of 0.99
00:08:12.900 story i couldn't agree more joe and when it comes to brookfield i mean there's been so much scrutiny
00:08:21.060 around his ongoing relationship. Of course, we know much of his investments remain in Brookfield
00:08:26.860 in terms of stock options and so forth. They may be in a blind trust, but he still knows what's in
00:08:33.600 there and hence may have a conflict in terms of government contracts and so forth. And so for him
00:08:42.160 to be meeting at Brookfield with the head of Brookfield in Italy while he's there, I think
00:08:47.820 that should come out if in fact that is the case last word to you my friend you know we don't know
00:08:52.840 what he's there we've asked the question they haven't responded to the email but they're you
00:08:57.320 know the reality of it is that there's no vacation over in Tuscany as paid for by the Canadian
00:09:03.960 taxpayers that they don't get to ask a question of what it's about you know this thing with
00:09:09.320 Brookfield that all the you know is Brookfield running Canada because you know if that's the
00:09:15.280 case, then we should know that. Now, whoever it is he's meeting with, it was put in front of this
00:09:19.720 big six-foot-five guy that's so tough. And so his job is now to tell us what was put in front of him
00:09:26.140 and tell the Canadian public. He works for the Canadian public. And the prime minister, you know,
00:09:30.860 I feel that he should get back on that plane, which belongs to us, and get back over and get
00:09:36.840 to work here because people here are working. He wants to go on vacation on his own time,
00:09:41.700 then don't be prime minister right now we've got crisis after crisis after crisis here
00:09:46.520 including the future of the country and he's over in tuscany on a secret vacation with his family
00:09:52.080 or whatever it is and we you know we get to know that he's doing it and that's the end of it well
00:09:56.440 that's not our job as journalists it's not personal but it is it is a little personal when i see
00:10:02.020 people in the food bank lines i don't like that absolutely joe warmington thank you so much for
00:10:08.400 coming on the show. We appreciate this. Glad to be here. Joe Armington is with the Toronto Sun.
00:10:14.300 If you enjoyed the show, consider supporting great independent journalism by becoming a
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00:10:23.380 find the link below. It helps us do what we do. Thank you so much for tuning in. We'll see you
00:10:27.460 next time.