Angry in the Great White North
The Income Trust Scandal: Which ministers knew? We need names
Wednesday, January 04, 2006 at 06:47 AM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
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The income trust scandal is becoming more and more muddied. As we all know, on November 23, after trading had closed, Liberal Finance Minister Ralph Goodale announced that income trusts would not be taxed. The next day, the value of units in income trusts surged.

Curiously, trading in income trusts surged in the hours before the announcement. Was there a leak? The RCMP is investigating.

One of those traders who made a lucky trade was TSX CEO Richard Nesbitt, who invested over $700,000 that afternoon, and on November 24, realized a profit of $100,000.

In my piece on Richard Nesbitt, and his simultaneous role of a stock exchange CEO, a major personal investor, and a lobbyist registered to talk to the government on income trading, which might or might cover income trusts, I mentioned that one of Nesbitt's team, David Ablett, had worked closely with Jim Peterson in the past.

Jim Peterson is Ralph Goodale's cabinet colleague. Peterson is the Minister of International Trade. That ministry is works closely with Finance.

I wondered if Peterson knew what was going to happen. Until yesterday, the Ralph Goodale and Prime Minister Paul Martin were the only two cabinet ministers to have stated that they knew what was going on.

Until yesterday.

From CTV:

However, Goodale appeared flustered when asked if other cabinet ministers were in the loop of his Nov. 23 announcement on income trusts.

"There where [sic] ministers that obviously were involved in the discussion because they simply had to be," he said.

Did that include Jim Peterson, a person who had worked closely with David Ablett, a member of the lobbying team of Richard Nesbitt, who profited so handsomely by making trades ahead of the announcement?

And even if it did not, just who did it include? And who among their staff?

Or maybe it would be easier just to tell us who didn't know. Other than small investors, of course. We know they had no chance to make a quick profit.

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