OTTAWA -- As 麻豆影视 reported yesterday, Finance Minister Bill Morneau continues to own shares in his family鈥檚 business Morneau Shepell through a corporate structure that keeps him from having to divest or put his shares in a blind trust.

This is in contrast with 10 current members of the federal cabinet who divested their holdings, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

He was one of four ministers who put their stock holdings into blind trusts. The others were:

  • Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Minister Carolyn Bennett;
  • Treasury Board President Scott Brison; and
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Minister Laurence MacAuley.

The six other current cabinet ministers who sold their shares are:

  • Minister of Families, Children and Social Development Minister Jean-Yves Duclos;
  • Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna;
  • Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland;
  • Transport Minister Marc Garneau;
  • National Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan; and
  • Sport and Persons with Disabilities Minister Kent Hehr.

These are requirements that Morneau didn't have to meet, because his estimated $40 million in Morneau Shepell stock is held by a numbered Alberta company.

As Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson told 麻豆影视 Tuesday, because Morneau鈥檚 shares are held by the company, he is considered to hold them indirectly. The way she interprets the law only applies to directly held shares. It鈥檚 a loophole she flagged in a 2013 report, when the Conservatives were in power, but neither they, nor the current government have done anything to close it.

Her recommendation was to amend the Conflict of Interest Act to count both directly and indirectly held shares.

Though, Morneau isn't the only one in cabinet to have used the loophole.

Until recently, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould held "a significant interest" in a management consulting company called KaLoNa Group, which also owned publicly-traded securities.

Asked about the company Wednesday afternoon, and why it hadn鈥檛 been put in a blind trust, Wilson-Raybould said there is nothing that the KaLoNa Group holds that would require it to be put in a blind trust, and she has fully co-operated with the ethics commissioner.

Wilson-Raybould's office told 麻豆影视 late Wednesday that some of those shares were sold last year.

"She is a shareholder in KaLoNa Group and not a director, therefore she does not make any management or financial decisions for the company," her office said in a statement.

On Thursday she told reporters that after looking into it, all the publicly traded shares were divested in April 2016.

鈥淚 think the fact that I didn't know that yesterday speaks to the reality that I have no control management, financial or otherwise in that company. That will remain as such,鈥� Wilson-Raybould said Thursday.

In question period today, Trudeau was on the defensive over Morneau's continued ownership of the shares in a firm that stands to benefit from decisions he makes as the finance minister. Trudeau said that Morneau, like others, acted on the advice of the ethics commissioner.

Trudeau did not say, when asked, when he found out that Morneau鈥檚 assets were not in a blind trust, and chalked up the opposition鈥檚 questioning to personal attacks.

Morneau, who was not in the House of Commons Wednesday, has asked Dawson for a meeting to discuss whether further steps, like putting his assets in a blind trust, would be appropriate.

With files from 麻豆影视鈥� Glen McGregor