ETHICS REPORT

❚ Federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson concludes in a report released Wednesday Justin Trudeau violated the rules when he vacationed last Christmas at the private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan and when his family vacationed on the same island months earlier in March 2016. ❚ The Trudeaus’ visit to the island — and the prime minister’s use of the Aga Khan’s private helicopter to get there — broke sections of the Conflict of Interest Act that prohibit a minister or any member of their family from accepting gifts or advantages that could reasonably be seen as influencing government decisions. ❚ Trudeau also didn’t properly recuse himself on two occasions in May 2016 from private meetings about the Aga Khan and a $ 15- million grant to the billionaire philanthropist’s endowment fund of the Global Centre for Pluralism. ❚ The Aga Khan and his foundation were registered to lobby Trudeau’s office in December 2016, meaning the vacation and helicopter ride “could reasonably be seen to have been given to influence Mr. Trudeau in his capacity as prime minister,” Dawson’s report says. But she also found no evidence that Trudeau had asked for, or ordered officials to do anything to further the Aga Khan’s private interest.

❚ It is the first time a prime minister has been found to have violated federal conflict of interest rules. ❚ Trudeau publicly apologized Wednesday for not going to Dawson before the vacation to get her clearance and promised to do so for every vacation in the future. “I take full responsibility for it,” he told a hastily called news conference. “We need to make sure that the office of the prime minister is without reproach.” ❚ The public shaming will be the biggest penalty Trudeau faces. The only penalties under the act are fines handed out to those who fail to meet reporting requirements, and Dawson’s office confirmed those penalties don’t apply in this case. ❚ Trudeau’s defence to the ethics commissioner was to say he considered the Aga Khan a friend and was thus exempt from the rules on accepting gifts. Dawson rejected that defence because she concluded their friendship only blossomed after the prime minister became Liberal leader in 2013. Before that, the two hadn’t spoken for 30 years. ❚ The Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, contacted Trudeau a year after he won the leadership. He offered a standing invitation for Trudeau and his family to visit Bells Cay, his private Bahamian island.