PM Carney asks ethics watchdog to impose conflict-of-interest screen over friendship with Telesat CEO

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Mark Carney asked the federal ethics commissioner to impose a conflict-of-interest screen between himself and a close friend who runs a company that does extensive work with the federal government.

OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney asked the federal ethics commissioner to impose a conflict-of-interest screen between himself and a close friend who runs a company that does extensive work with the federal government.

The request was made in a letter sent to Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein on Friday.

Carney has been friends with Dan Goldberg, the president and CEO of Telesat, for nearly two decades. The two are so close, Goldberg was one of a select few to be invited to last year’s swearing-in ceremonies.

Despite that, no formal ethics screen was in place to ensure Carney could not weigh in on government discussions and decisions connected to his friend and Telesat, a Canadian satellite operator.

CTV News reported on Nov. 3 that the federal Conservatives had submitted a formal request for a review to von Finckenstein. They asked for a screen to be imposed and for the commissioner to consider launching a review of whether Carney had broken the Conflict of Interest Act.

At the time, Carney said he had previously disclosed his relationship with Goldberg to the ethics commissioner, and he defended his handling of the relationship.

Telesat received a $2.3-billion contract from the federal government in August. The prime minister has said he was not involved in any discussions connected to the contract or the decision to award it. However, he has not clarified whether he similarly removed himself from other discussions connected to Telesat, despite his office saying in September that he had.

After previously playing down the issues, Carney wrote a letter to von Finckenstein on Friday asking for more to be done to ensure he doesn’t end up in a conflict of interest with his friend or his company.

“Out of an abundance of caution and to avoid any doubt in public perception considering the current public attention to Telesat, I have concluded that it would be prudent to establish additional screens,” Carney said in the letter obtained by CTV…

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