Yesterday, Blasting News featured Canadian Member of Parliament Charlie Angus, and the seeming connection between the New Democratic Party leadership candidate and companies with questionable publicly traded investments. Among them, shares of Kerr Mines Inc. (TSE: KER), formerly Armistice Resources, are down over 98 percent. This is a fact. Today, Angus joined U.S. President Donald Trump in scolding the media over "fake news."

Another fact is that Charlie Angus has gone on record with the Timmins Press with regard to flow-through shares, as having "consistently led on the issue of flow-through shares," and getting it "on the political agenda, that's a fact."

Another fact is that former CEO of Armistice, Kirkland Lake Town Councilor Todd Morgan, was quoted by Northern Ontario Business, stating that Armistice was looking for "100 staff" by the end of 2011.

Another fact is that after predicting that Armistice would go into production, Morgan suddenly resigned, Armistice changed its name to Kerr, and the shares were pummeled. Investors who listened to Todd Morgan's stories of a Kirkland Lake-area mine going into production, and hiring 100 people, were seemingly ripped off.

Beneficiaries of Angus-supported legislation share similarities to convicted swindlers

Another fact is that Armistice made use of the flow-through share program, as reported by NewsWire on October 3, 2011, which Charlie Angus, and his NDP have supported.

Blasting News has previously offered the possibility that flow-through share financing is a tool used by distributors of stock who share characteristics with convicted U.S. swindler Jordan Belfort, upon whose life the 2013 film, The Wolf of Wall Street, was based.

Another fact is that U.S. politicians like Trump and U.S. Senator from Vermont Bernie Sanders are required to file financial disclosure that includes investment holdings.

If Trump or Sanders owned shares in Kerr Mines, the public would be aware of it. Another fact is that Canadian members of Parliament like Charlie Angus do not file public financial disclosure that includes investment holdings. Canadians have no idea if Charlie Angus has traded, and profited, in the shares of Kerr Mines, which appears to have fleeced investors using legislation that Angus has publicly championed.

Another fact is that Charlie Angus maintains an office in Kirkland Lake that is located within walking distance of the Kirkland Lake Town Hall, where Todd Morgan regularly sits in town council meetings. Chances are high that Angus and Morgan, both veterans of northern Ontario politics, know each other personally.

Are expense report discussions a straw man?

Another fact is that, while Canadian politicians don't submit financial disclosure at the same level U.S. politicians do, they do submit expense reports. These reports are a good idea. They show what members of Parliament spend money on when engaged in the "discharge of their parliamentary functions." This is intended to keep MPs who would do such things as paying $5,000 for a car rental, worth $39, from doing so.

However, these expense reports include nothing about MPs' investment holdings, and are not comparable with financial disclosure provided by U.S. members of the House of Representatives and Senate.

In fact, many discussions about MPs' expense reports conducted in Parliament, as well as in the Canadian media, have all the hallmarks of well-thought-out "straw-man arguments," specifically designed to divert attention away from more important issues, while creating an appearance that something is being done about fiscal impropriety. Expense reports and financial disclosure are important checks on the behavior of politicians. However, each are distinctly different things, and serve different functions.

Currently, Canadian politicians appear to provide no disclosure whatsoever about their investments. The same investments politicians are instrumental in drafting legislation that routinely has a material impact upon.