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Liberal leadership candidate Justin Trudeau says lucrative public speaking appearances he made after becoming an MP were approved by the federal ethics commissioner and listed in his conflict-of-interest disclosures.

“When I started as an MP, I sat down with Mary Dawson and asked her all about it and said this is what I’m doing,” Trudeau said in an interview last week.

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“We made sure it was all set up because I didn’t want to get into trouble.”

An Ottawa Citizen report on Trudeau’s personal finances, published Thursday, showed he earned a six-figure salary on the public-speaking circuit before entering politics and has continued to take some paid speaking work since becoming an MP.

Trudeau reported receiving this income in public disclosures he filed with Dawson’s office dating back to 2009, as required of all MPs who hold private business interests or receive income from other sources.