Controversies Abound, Part the Second

Of course, the other little controversy brewing is the whole income trust leak causing trading irregularities. You can read about it at the CTV website [CTV, CARP says it got notice of Goodale announcement]. In summary, the controversy is that it seems there was an alleged leak from the Ministry of Finance prior to market close about changes to how dividends are taxed and that there was a change in income trust policy. If the OSC investigates, that will be something. MoF denies it, and so does CARP, the alleged recipient of the leak.

More to the point though, the individual named as the recipient of the leak, William Gleberzon a director of Government & Media Relations for Canada's Association for the Fifty-Plus (CARP), says he received early income trust information - according to the article anyway:

When asked what exactly he was told, Gleberzon indicated the specifics were vague, but the underlying message was clear.

"They said something was going to be announced later in the day. And we assumed that if they told us that ... it would probably be something we'd be happy with."

Mr. Gleberzon then goes on to indicate that no information was passed to members (because he said they didn't know what information it was).

But then, he's listed as the contact for a release on the CARP website that CARP had no information about the change in investment policy.

There is no truth to the serious accusations that CARP had inside information about Minister Ralph Goodale’s announcement regarding Income Trusts. In fact, the political crossfire regarding who knew what, when and how about the Minister’s announcement has created the false allegation that there was a leak to CARP.

Truly bizarre - somebody messed up somewhere.

Anyway, if there is suspicious activity, I would expect the Ontario Securities Commission to launch an investigation, and they haven't yet and they haven't commented.

Don't know what to think on either one.

Say, how about we get back to policy discussions?

Tags: canada, carp, liberal party, politics