Finally got around today to scanning a handout distributed last week by Liberal MP and leadership hopeful Scott Brison that contains what Brison describes as the complete e-mail exchange had with a CIBC employee on Nov. 22–23. On Nov. 23, then Finance Minister Ralph Goodale announced a tax policy change that was very favourable to corporations who had organized themselves as income trusts. That announcement was made after the 4 pm Toronto time closing of stock markets.
Opposition politicians alleged that advance notice of this favourable ruling was leaked to Bay Street sources and pointed to some trading spikes in income trust issues to support their claim. Last December, in the midst of the election campaign, the RCMP announced it was investigating those allegations.
Brison released the e-mail exchange he had after The Globe and Mail published a story about them.
The document given to the press by Brison extends over two pages and, according to Brison, is the complete exchange he had with the CIBC correspondent. Brison blacked any parts of the message that might be used to identify his correspondent. The Globe later published a story saying that the e-mail exchange was between Brison and Dan Nowlan, a top investment banker for CIBC.
A reader of these documents should take note of the date and time of each e-mail. The first one is on the bottom of the second page and the last one is on the top of the first page. In other words, the e-mails appear here as they were presented to us, in reverse chronological order.
David, I thought I heard Scott Brison say on Mike Duffy tonight that he couldn't remember if the email about the Trust situation was sent during a Cabinet meeting or not. However, I seem to remember you reporting something to that effect. Wouldn't it be fairly easy to get that information? One would think that Scott Brison would have access to the dates and times of past cabinet meetings and be able to supply Mike Duffy with a conclusive answer to his question. Scott seems to have a faulty memory. He had trouble remembering the facts when questioned by the Globe too.