Nine mea culpas issued in the Trudeau era

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is refusing to apologize after an ethics report released Wednesday said he broke conflict of interest rules by inappropriately pressuring Attorney General Jody Wilson-Raybould in the SNC-Lavalin affair. Apologies, though, have flowed free and easy from this Liberal government since taking office in 2015.

May 18, 2016: Prime Minister Justin Trudeau apologizes in the House of Commons for the Komagata Maru incident, in which a ship full of people from India, mostly Sikhs along with some Muslims and Hindus, were turned away from Canada and sent back to Calcutta. A riot ensued upon their return, resulting in the death of 20 Sikhs.

Nov. 24, 2017: Trudeau issues a formal apology to residential school survivors in Newfoundland and Labrador. Thousands of indigenous Canadians were left out of a previous 2008 national apology issued by former prime minister Stephen Harper.

Nov. 28, 2017: Trudeau officially apologizes to LGBT Canadians in the House of Commons for decades of “state-sponsored, systematic oppression.”

Dec. 20, 2017: Trudeau apologizes after an ethics report says he broke conflict-of-interest rules during a family vacation at the Aga Khan’s private island. “I should have taken precautions and cleared my family vacation and dealings with the Aga Khan in advance. I’m sorry I didn’t,” Trudeau said.

March 26, 2018: Trudeau apologizes to members of the Tsilhqot’in Nation for an 1864 incident in which six chiefs from the nation were hanged. The incident stems from a deadly confrontation with a white road-building crew that had entered Tsilhqot’in territory without permission. Nov. 7, 2018: Trudeau apologized for a Canadian decision in 1939 to turn away the MS St. Louis, which contained more than 900 German Jews seeking asylum from Nazi Germany. After the ship returned to Europe, 254 of the passengers would later die in the Holocaust. March 8, 2019: Trudeau apologizes in Iqaluit for the way Inuit in northern Canada were treated for tuberculosis in the mid-20th century, calling the policies colonial and misguided. “We are sorry for your pain,” Trudeau said.

May 23, 2019: Trudeau exonerates Chief Poundmaker in the community that bears his name, the Poundmaker Cree Nation, and apologizes for the chief’s unjust conviction for treason more than 130 years ago.

Aug. 15, 2019: Just a day after the ethics report on the SNC-Lavalin was released, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Carolyn Bennett issued an apology to the Inuit of Baffin Island in Iqaluit. The apology is the result of the Qikiqtani Truth Commission, which was set up to investigate an alleged police conspiracy to kill sled-dogs — the commission found no evidence of a deliberate scheme to kill the dogs, but did paint a picture of wide-ranging hardships met by Inuit.