OTTAWA - Finance Minister Bill Morneau is trying to fend off fresh criticism during another fiery question period -- this one so heated that one Conservative MP has already been ejected from the House of Commons.
Morneau has been at the centre of an ethics controversy for weeks, and the questions today are focused on new revelations that his father sold off 200,000 shares in their family-built company right before the minister made a major tax-change announcement.
All week, the Conservatives and the New Democrats have been grilling the Liberals about Morneau's late-2015 sale of hundreds of thousands of shares in Morneau Shepell -- a transaction that took place days before the announcement.
Opponents allege Morneau's December 2015 news, which included the government's plan to raise income taxes on the highest earners, caused the entire stock market to drop -- including the value of Morneau Shepell shares.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer has since called for Morneau's resignation because of the stock sale and other conflict-of-interest allegations that have dogged the finance minister for weeks. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has repeatedly defended his minister.
The feisty debate prompted Speaker Geoff Regan to take the rare step of having Tory MP Blake Richards removed from the Commons by the sergeant-at-arms.
