Trudeau was going to be in trouble over Aga Khan trip, dealings: watchdog
Justin Trudeau was going to find himself in hot water one way or another when he took a trip to the Aga Khan’s private island, then later attended a pair of meetings about one of the spiritual leader’s projects, the former House of Commons ethics watchdog said Wednesday.
Mary Dawson — whose final major pronouncement as federal ethics commissioner was to call the prime minister on the carpet over that ill-advised family trip in December 2016 — was the star witness at a special hearing of the Commons ethics committee, which has been seized of late with parsing the findings in her ominously titled “Trudeau Report.”
In particular, committee members were focused on the question of how the word “friend” is defined in the Conflict of Interest Act. Trudeau has long defended the trip on the grounds that the Aga Khan is a close personal friend.
Dawson, however, concluded that Trudeau couldn’t be considered a friend of the wealthy spiritual leader, considering how little the two have interacted over the years - which meant the trip should be subject to an ethics review.
She concluded Trudeau violated four provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act when he and members of his family accepted the trip to the private island, since it could be seen as a gift designed to influence the prime minister.
She also found Trudeau should have recused himself from two meetings focused on a $15-million federal grant to the endowment fund of the billionaire philanthropist’s Global Centre for Pluralism. However, Dawson found no evidence that Trudeau used his position to further the Aga Khan’s private interest.
If the two were indeed friends, Trudeau would have been in trouble by sitting in on the two meetings, but not the trip, Dawson told the committee. In the opposite scenario, he would have been in trouble over the trip in particular for using the Aga Khan’s private helicopter.
“One way or another, there was going to be a problem,” Dawson testified.
Dawson, whose tenure as ethics commissioner came to an end on Monday, said the report should be seen as a cautionary tale for the prime minister and for any other elected official when they meet with people they consider old pals.
Politicians, including the prime minister, can meet old friends, but “better be careful” if that friend lobbies or has dealings with the federal government, she said.
The Conflict of Interest Act contains a specific exemption for gifts from friends, an exception that Dawson said should be removed from the law.
She also said naming and shaming Trudeau in the report should be sufficient punishment for the prime minister, and that she doesn’t see a need to introduce more stringent penalties.