Don Black, the CEO of Regina-based Greystone Managed Investments Inc., said he couldn't believe his eyes when he saw his name and face splashed on various blogs and websites where authors imply Black may have benefited from his personal friendship with Goodale.
"I'm outraged that people like me are being dragged into it and all these people putting things about me and my firm and my relationship with the minister on a website," he said.
Black and other executive members of the Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA) had a meeting with Goodale on Nov. 23, 2005 hours before Goodale announced the government would not change how income trusts are taxed.
Don Black
The income trust case has emerged as a major campaign issue – the RCMP is investigating a complaint by an NDP MP over a spike in stock market activity shortly before the announcement was made. The other parties are asking whether someone in government might have leaked the information.
Black, whose friendship with Goodale goes back 20 years, said income trusts were mentioned at the meeting, but Goodale didn't say what the government was going to do.
"What he said was, 'I may be driven to dealing with this before the government falls.' That was all he said. We didn't say, 'Gee, what are you going to do?'" Black said. "Do you think he would have told us?"
Backing up his claim, he said, is the fact that Greystone didn't buy income trusts in the hours before the news came out.
"How come my own firm that day was selling income trusts?" he said. "I'd have to be a complete idiot to have been tipped by the minister that he was going to make a positive announcement and I'm selling my clients out of an income trust."
The RCMP interviewed Goodale earlier this week.
He has insisted that he was not involved in any wrongdoing and has resisted opposition calls for him to step down as finance minister during the investigation.
Goodale is the Liberal candidate in the Regina-area Wascana riding. Voters head to the polls on Jan. 23.
