David MacNaughton, president of controversial data-mining firm Palantir’s Canadian operations and an advisor to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, broke the federal conflict-of-interest law by offering the company’s services to the federal government pro bono in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion ruled Wednesday. Nine top federal officials, including Chrystia Freeland and Navdeep Bains, must now “restrict their official dealings” with MacNaughton. Dion’s office launched its investigation after The Logic revealed MacNaughton’s claims that Palantir had been working with Ottawa and several provinces.
Reporter Murad Hemmadi joined David Skok, CEO & Editor-in-Chief of The Logic, for a subscriber-exclusive inside look at the reporting that prompted the ethics complaint against Palantir’s David MacNaughton.