Evidence of meeting #11 for Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics in the 45th Parliament, 1st session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was cooper.
A video is available from Parliament.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
In 2019, was he involved in the refinancing of Shanghai commercial real estate that is worth billions?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
That investment continued into his time taking over an executive role with Brookfield, yes.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Would it be fair to characterize Brookfield's investments in the PRC as politically sensitive?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
In my view, as an expert on China's United Front system, as I said before, the nature of that real estate investment and the other parties involved would, I believe, very much touch on the Chinese Communist Party's control.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Would it be accurate to say that the Beijing-based Communist regime has a significant amount of leverage over Brookfield with respect to its investments, and that if Brookfield wants to make a return on its investments, it would be very much in Brookfield's interests to maintain a good relationship with the Beijing-based Communist regime? I think that would be fair, wouldn't it?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
At a basic level, I do think it's fair that international business persons, even of the Michael Bloomberg type, have been recognized to take into consideration the Communist Party's wishes, yes.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
We have a Prime Minister who has significant financial interests tied to Brookfield, worth millions, and we have Brookfield, in turn, being deeply intertwined with a Communist regime based in Beijing.
On a broad level, shouldn't that concern Canadians vis-à-vis the Prime Minister's fulfilling his duty to put Canada's interests first, when his private financial interests in Brookfield are deep, which in turn is deeply intertwined with the PRC?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
In fairness, I think a business analyst would say it's almost impossible for international business persons to not be doing business with Chinese state entities in some ways, but I do also think it's fair to say that if a company has a very strong balance towards businesses in China, such as the real estate investment or the green investments I've talked about, Canadians should be aware of that, definitely.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Mark Carney, as recently as October 2024, while he was advising then prime minister Justin Trudeau as his economic adviser, went over to Beijing, met with—in secret meetings among others—the deputy governor of Beijing's central bank and, two weeks later, secured a quarter-billion-dollar loan for Brookfield.
Not anyone can just do that, can they, unless they have significant ties with the regime at the highest levels?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
There's no question. I noted the timeline of that visit to China and the deal securing funding from the Bank of China. That's not to say there's a definite tie there, but the timing is interesting and, I think, relevant.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
I just want to ask you about Brookfield's real estate investments.
You referenced an individual who is connected to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, which the CIA has identified as a United Front entity. That individual is Vincent Lo. Is that correct?
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Vincent Lo served as Brookfield's primary real estate partner—or one of their primary partners—in the region. Is that right?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
To my recollection, he was a key partner on that development.
Conservative
Michael Cooper Conservative St. Albert—Sturgeon River, AB
Lo would have played that role during the time that Carney was chair at Brookfield, involved in real estate in the PRC, right?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
If the structure of the deal continues, which I believe it does, that would be the case.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative John Brassard
Thank you, Mr. Cooper.
Ms. Church is next, for five minutes.
Go ahead, please.
Liberal
Leslie Church Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Welcome, Mr. Cooper.
Mr. Cooper, I wanted to ask you a question that I asked the earlier witness today. That is, as you are no doubt aware, there is a code for members of Parliament—an ethics code—in addition to the Conflict of Interest Act that applies to public office holders.
I was just wondering whether or not you thought that both members and public office holders should be brought within the same standards, whether there is a usefulness to that.
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
I think there's a usefulness, and I was impressed with Mr. Wernick's answer with respect to the training, professionalism and legal consultations that occur with impartiality. The structure is there, and it should be applied as broadly as possible.
Liberal
Leslie Church Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
I imagine you would see that.... We've been talking a fair amount about Brookfield, as an example, today, and there are members from across the political spectrum who've invested in Brookfield as an entity. Perhaps that's one of the reasons the code should be expanded to include the same coverage as the act itself.
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
As far as I understand the framework you're laying out, yes, it should be applied broadly to parliamentarians and staff.
Liberal
Leslie Church Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
Mr. Wernick, in his appearance today, also talked a little about how the conflict of interest regime, along with other regimes—like the security regime, for example—can actually uncover areas of leverage that foreign agents or foreign governments might have on a public office holder.
Would you agree with his assessment?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
I do agree with him that the structure is there, and the professional training in staff is there. Where I would step back a little is that I also agree with Duff Conacher's testimony in the sense that I'm not sure the application of those rules has been up to the standard that some Canadians would want to see.
October 27th, 2025 / 12:30 p.m.
Liberal
Leslie Church Liberal Toronto—St. Paul's, ON
We've been talking a bit about the perceptions of conflict of interest. What guardrails would you suggest to ensure the...let's call it veracity of an apparent conflict of interest.
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. One of the problems we have as legislators is how we define this. How would you suggest that we put some guardrails around what constitutes an apparent conflict of interest?
Journalist, The Bureau, As an Individual
That's a question that may go beyond my knowledge, but I do agree with the prior member's position that the structure in place, where the commissioner would recognize a potential conflict.... Let's just say that, if there's a lot of meat on the bone, they could pass it on to a next-level independent commissioner. That seems to make sense to me.