Trudeau’s poor behaviour

An editorial from the Waterloo Region Record, published Dec. 22, 2017:

Someone should give Justin Trudeau a new moral compass this Christmas. He lost his a year ago. This much is clear in a scathing report on the prime minister released by federal ethics commissioner Mary Dawson.

Trudeau, she says, broke Canada’s ethics law.

He did this most egregiously when he and his family enjoyed an all-expense vacation in December 2016 on the private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan.

Not only is the Aga Khan the fabulously wealthy leader of the world’s Ismaili Muslims, his organizations frequently lobby the federal government.

You’d think Trudeau, who grew up as the son of a sitting prime minister and who has years of experience in Parliament, would have an inkling of the high standards to which he must be held.

You’d think someone with his political savvy would know that, at the very least, it looks bad for a prime minister to be entertained for free on the palatial estate of a man whose Global Centre for Pluralism wanted a $15-million grant from Trudeau’s government.

You’d think he would understand the ethics law.

But, as the ethics commissioner discovered, Trudeau didn’t know how to behave.

It was wrong for Trudeau to stay as a guest on the Aga Khan’s island last year, Dawson said.

It was wrong for Trudeau to travel on the billionaire’s private helicopter to get there, she continued.

It was wrong for Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, to take a separate vacation on the island with their children in March 2016. The prime minister was not on that trip.

Trudeau was also wrong not to properly recuse himself on two occasions in May 2016 from private meetings about the Aga Khan and a $15-million grant to the philanthropist’s endowment fund of the Global Centre for Pluralism.

It should be emphasized there’s no suggestion Trudeau attempted to repay the Aga Khan’s hospitality in any inappropriate way.

But it must be clear to the country that every aspect of a prime minister’s conduct removes the slightest suspicion he has acted improperly.

It is also troubling that Trudeau has repeatedly argued he thought last year's vacation — about which he was at the time quite secretive — was permissible according to the rules because the Aga Khan is his personal friend.

The ethics commission rejected this, noting that Trudeau had only one interaction with the Aga Khan in the 30 years leading up to 2013.

Canadians can take consolation in the fact that Trudeau has apologized for his mistakes and vowed to seek prior approval from the ethics commissioner for any similar travels in future.

Ironically, had he asked for this permission in the past, he may have received it.

Yet, while Trudeau faces no official sanctions, Canadians have every right to be disappointed in the actions of a man who has built a remarkably successful political career on the foundations of his own, unimpeachable character.

Today that foundation is cracked and the man on top seems out of touch with his country.