TRUDEAU ADMITS TO 2014 VACATION WITH AGA KHAN
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau admitted Tuesday to a second vacation, in 2014, while he was a member of Parliament, on the Bahamas island owned by billionaire philanthropist and family friend the Aga Kahn.
In 2014, Trudeau was an everyday MP who happened to be the leader of the third party in the House of Commons and, as a result, would not have been subject to the same federal law — the Conflict of Interest Act — that governs some of his travel activity now that he is the prime minister.
Trudeau is under investigation by Parliament’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner for potential violations of the act for his 2016 holiday as prime minister on Bell Island, the 141- hectare island owned by the Aga Khan in an archipelago described as the “Hampton of the Bahamas.”
No prime minister has ever been found by an authority, such as a judge or an officer of parliament, to have violated a federal law while in office.
The ethics commissioner, Mary Dawson, is probing two potential violations: that Trudeau was in a conflict of interest by taking a free holiday from the Aga Khan, who is the founder and director of a registered Canadian lobbying organization and, secondly, that he travelled the 115 kilometres between the capital of the Bahamas, Nassau, and Bell Island, on the Aga Khan’s private helicopter.
The Conflict of Interest Act does allow a minister to accept gifts — including gifts in the form of use of property — from friends.
And Trudeau’s admission Tuesday would seem to provide more evidence of a long friendship with the 80-yearold Swiss- born spiritual leader.
“The first time I went on vacation with the Aga Khan, I was 12 years old. It was a family trip with my father and my brothers and we had a wonderful time in Greece,” Trudeau said in Calgary at a press conference. “I have seen him many times since then for dinners, at his place, and in various places around the world. And, yes, in Christmas of 2014 I spent some time with him on Bell Island as well.”
Trudeau said that not only did he travel to the Aga Khan’s island in 2014, he got there the same way he got there a few weeks ago: on the private helicopter.
Prime ministers and ministers are prohibited under the act from travelling in private aircraft unless they get prior permission from the ethics commissioner, which Trudeau did not do; unless it is an emergency; or if it is part of the normal performance of a minister’s duties.
Trudeau has always maintained this was a family vacation and was not connected to his official duties.
As an MP in 2014, Trudeau may have had some requirements to report this trip on the Aga Khan’s aircraft under the MPs’ conflict of interest code — not a law, but a resolution of the House of Commons — if he believed that this free travel stemmed from his everyday duties as an MP.
Liberal MP Sea mus O’Regan joined the Trudeaus on Bell Island for the 2016 holiday and O’Regan felt he had a duty to disclose this travel to the ethics commissioner, telling the National Post in an interview that it was the first thing he did upon his return to Canada. O’Regan, like Trudeau in 2014, is an everyday MP and not a minister and therefore is governed by the conflict of interest code for MPs.
If the ethics commissioner believes O’Regan’s trip on the Aga Khan’s helicopter constituted “sponsored travel,” it will be listed in her next annual report chronicling the sponsored travel of all MPs. Neither the 2014 nor the 2015 list of sponsored travel published by the ethics commissioner contains any disclosures from Trudeau.
Meanwhile, Canadian public opinion appears to be split as to whether it was appropriate for Trudeau and his family to accept the free travel from the Aga Khan.
A new poll found 42 per cent of those surveyed agree that the travel was inappropriate and 41 per cent thought it appropriate. About 17 per cent had no opinion.
Toronto- based Forum Research, on its own initiative, polled about 1,300 Canadians last weekend on the issue and provided the results exclusively to the National Post.
Forum asked 1,332 Canadians in an automated telephone poll conducted Jan. 19- 21, “Was it appropriate for Justin Trudeau to accept a flight aboard a private helicopter while on vacation?”
Forum says the results are accurate within three percentage points, 19 times out of 20.