Toronto tycoon tried to stop probe into Trudeau fundraising, days before he and wife were found strangled
Executives for Barry Sherman’s drug firm had been subpoenaed by the federal lobbying watchdog
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Late pharmaceutical tycoon Barry Sherman sought to quash an investigation into his fundraising for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Liberals just days before his death, according to a report on Wednesday.
The 75-year-old chairman of Apotex and his 70-year-old wife Honey were found dead of strangulation in their Toronto home last week, police said. Media reports said they were both found hanged next to their indoor swimming pool. Apotex is the largest maker of generic drugs in Canada, and the Shermans’ fortune was estimated at more than US$3 billion.
Police said Sunday they were investigating the deaths as “suspicious”, but stopped short of calling them homicides, while family and friends rejected media reports that it was a murder-suicide.
The Toronto Star said the commissioner’s team sought interviews with the executives in April but they declined.
A month later, Sherman launched his lawsuit, claiming the subpoenas were an “unanchored fishing expedition” and “unconstitutional.”
His lawyers filed several more documents in the case days before his death.
The probe into a fundraising event Sherman held for Trudeau in August 2015, during the last election campaign, was launched after complaints filed by Democracy Watch, a good-government organisation based in Ottawa.
A second investigation into a November 2016 fundraiser co-organised by Sherman for Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau was reportedly dropped due to a lack of evidence.
But Phil McIntosh, director of investigations for the lobby commission, said in a report cited by the Toronto Star that “the directorate found evidence indicating that Mr Sherman engaged in political activities that risk creating a sense of obligation on the part of one or more public office holders” through the August 2015 fundraiser.
Sherman and his wife had hosted between 100 and 150 people, each paying C$1,500 (US$1,165) to attend the event with Trudeau two months before his election victory.
The commissioner did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
In an email, Democracy Watch said Sherman’s fundraising “created conflicts of interest not just for himself but also for Apotex, conflicts that should result in a prohibition on Apotex lobbying the federal government through to August 2020.”
The advocacy group alleged that Sherman’s lawsuit aimed “to try to delay the rulings” of the commissioner until after the next election in 2019.
Trudeau, who said he was “saddened by the news of the sudden passing of Barry and Honey Sherman,” is due to attend a memorial service for the couple on Thursday.
