TRUDEAU EVASIVE ON VACATION QUESTIONS

PM won’t say if visit to Aga Khan was his first

OTTAWA • Prime Minister Justin Trudeau twice refused to answer questions Tuesday about whether he had ever before vacationed with the Aga Khan, the billionaire leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims.

Trudeau and his family spent about a week over the New Year’s break on what the prime minister has described as “a family vacation” on the private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan. He has also repeatedly said that the Aga Khan, 80, is a family friend who has known Trudeau since the prime minister was a toddler.

But in Fredericton on Tuesday, Trudeau would not say if the Bahamas holiday was the first he’d taken with the Aga Khan. Representatives for the Swiss-born Aga Khan, who normally makes his home in London, England, could not immediately be reached.

In replying to the questions about his vacation history with the Aga Khan, Trudeau said he would provide those answers to Parliament’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner.

His failure to answer a direct question about his relationship with the Aga Khan would seem to be at odds with a statement he made less than a day earlier in an interview with a Halifax radio station, whose host also had questions about the New Year’s holiday.

“I’ve heard from a number of people across the country that they are concerned about this (holiday), and that is why I take this very seriously and I’m happy to respond to all questions that the Ethics Commissioner and others may have,” Trudeau said.

Before speaking to reporters in Fredericton, Trudeau held a town-hall meeting during which a Fredericton resident, Mark D’Arcy, told Trudeau he believed the Trudeau family was entitled to keep vacation details private.

“I wish that the opposition and the media would let you be in terms of your Christmas holidays with you and your family,” D’Arcy said to a smattering of applause at the town hall event.

It was the first and only time through six town halls in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick that the vacation issue was raised by a member of the public. Trudeau did not comment on D’Arcy’s observation.

Trudeau later told reporters that he has not yet fixed a date to meet with the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, Mary Dawson, but that his staff was working to arrange a meeting.

I TAKE THIS VERY SERIOUSLY.

ANDREW VAUGHAN / THE CANADIAN PRESS Tuesday at a town-hall meeting in Fredericton, Justin Trudeau was asked about his Bahamas vacation by a member of the public for the first and only time in six such forums held in Ontario, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.