Quotes about Finance Minister Bill Morneau’s blind trust announcement

OTTAWA – Finance Minister Bill Morneau promised Thursday to put his assets into a blind trust and sell of his shares in Morneau Shepell, the firm he ran before he entered politics. Here are some quotes about the controversy:

“I am trying to make sure that we are successfully improving the lives of Canadians across the country, so if we’re getting distracted because some people are worried about my personal situation it’s time to move on. And that’s what I’ve decided to do.” Bill Morneau.

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“The finance minister hid his offshore company in France until he got caught, and then he reported it. He hid from Canadians his millions of dollars in Morneau Shepell shares in a numbered company in Alberta, despite wrongly telling others it was in a blind trust, until he got caught, and now he is selling them.” Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre.

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“The minister keeps saying that we have a process. Yes, we do. It is called honesty and integrity. For two years the minister was breaking the law by specifically hiding the ownership of his offshore corporation from the ethics commissioner. That is not called compliance, that is not called working with the ethics commissioner, it is called hiding from the ethics commissioner. When will the minister finally admit that he broke the law?” Conservative MP John Brassard.

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“Minister Morneau’s blind trust will be a sham, as all blind trusts are, because he will know what investments he puts in the trust, will choose the trustee, and can give general instructions to the trustee about the investments.” Duff Conacher, Co-founder of Democracy Watch.

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