OTTAWA – Prime Minister Mark Carney asked the federal ethics commissioner to impose a conflict-of-interest screen between himself and a close friend who runs a company that does extensive work with the federal government.
The request was made in a letter sent to Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Konrad von Finckenstein on Friday.
Carney has been friends with Dan Goldberg, the president and CEO of Telesat, for nearly two decades. The two are so close, Goldberg was one of a select few to be invited to last year’s swearing-in ceremonies.
Despite that, no formal ethics screen was in place to ensure Carney could not weigh in on government discussions and decisions connected to his friend and Telesat, a Canadian satellite operator.
CTV News reported on Nov. 3 that the federal Conservatives had submitted a formal request for a review to von Finckenstein. They asked for a screen to be imposed and for the commissioner to consider launching a review of whether Carney had broken the Conflict of Interest Act.
At the time, Carney said he had previously disclosed his relationship with Goldberg to the ethics commissioner, and he defended his handling of the relationship.
Telesat received a $2.3-billion contract from the federal government in August. The prime minister has said he was not involved in any discussions connected to the contract or the decision to award it. However, he has not clarified whether he similarly removed himself from other discussions connected to Telesat, despite his office saying in September that he had.
After previously playing down the issues, Carney wrote a letter to von Finckenstein on Friday asking for more to be done to ensure he doesn’t end up in a conflict of interest with his friend or his company.
“Out of an abundance of caution and to avoid any doubt in public perception considering the current public attention to Telesat, I have concluded that it would be prudent to establish additional screens,” Carney said in the letter obtained by CTV News.
He asked that the screens be put in place with Goldberg, Telesat and its subsidiaries.
In a statement sent to CTV News Friday, Conservative MP Jamil Jivani, who sent the original letter to the ethics commissioner, said there are “many more questions for Carney to answer.”
“The Canadian people deserve to know why Carney made this decision AFTER Telesat got a massive government contract, and what the impact has been of the PM having no ethics screen on Dan Goldberg and Telesat for the last year and a half,” Jivani said.
Telesat is a Canadian satellite operator that the prime minister and federal government have publicly championed as an alternative to Starlink and an avenue to bolster Canadian sovereignty.
Elon Musk’s SpaceX owns and operates Starlink, which Telesat would compete with once its low-Earth-orbit satellite network is launched. Telesat relies on SpaceX to launch its satellites.
Carney has also championed Telesat at the NATO summit in Turkiye and in joint statements with Norway.
In his letter to the ethics commissioner, the prime minister said he hoped a screen could be created that prevents conflicts, but still allows him to “engage in essential international diplomacy where appropriate and without preferential treatment.”
AI Minister Evan Solomon is also friends with Goldberg and is subject to an ethics screen covering both Goldberg and Telesat. Neither the prime minister, nor the ethics commissioner, has explained why a screen was not also put in place for Carney from the time he took office.
On Friday, the ethics commissioner’s office said it couldn’t say whether von Finckenstein has decided to launch an investigation into Carney’s Telesat connections, citing confidentiality. It also declined to comment on implementing the screens.
Goldberg’s relationship with Carney dates back to the 2000s, when the two had kids in the same soccer league, according to the Ottawa Business Journal. Along with Solomon, they became running buddies and remained close even when Carney became governor of the Bank of England, with Goldberg visiting him in London.
Since Carney launched his political career in 2025, Goldberg has frequently been in his corner: attending a leadership campaign event and his swearing-in ceremonies in March and May of last year. This year, Goldberg was also appointed to the federal government’s Strategic Exports Advisory Council and was invited to speak at the Canada Investment Summit.
In December 2025, Telesat was made a strategic partner with the federal government “to develop and bolster” the Canadian Armed Forces’ military satellite communications capabilities. Carney also regularly promotes the company, most recently in an interview with The New York Times.
Telesat previously said that Goldberg never asked Carney for government money, government contracts “or for special treatment of any kind related to Telesat, either before or after he took office.”
