Ethics report paints Trudeau in pathetic light

The report by outgoing ethics commissioner Mary Dawson into Justin Trudeau’s vacation last Christmas on the Aga Khan’s private island is fascinating for what it says about the prime minister’s violations of federal conflict-of-interest laws.

Dawson determined Trudeau broke federal ethics law at least four different ways when he accepted a holiday at the Aga Khan’s Bahamian retreat, when he flew on the Aga Khan’s private helicopter and when he refused to recuse himself from meetings at which tax-funded contributions to the Aga Khan’s Global Centre for Pluralism were discussed.

But the parts of Dawson’s report that are truly fascinating are those that provide insights into the mentality and habits of the PM and his wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau.

Trudeau offered Dawson a twopronged defence of his vacation (and another vacation his wife had taken to the Aga Khan’s island with a friend of hers and the Trudeaus’ children).

The first prong provides an unflattering picture of the prime minister’s governing style.

Trudeau claimed not to concern himself with details to the extent that he could not have been influenced by a gift. He doesn’t involve himself enough in what his government is doing to know what it was that the Aga Khan’s foundation was asking from the government, so how could a free trip change his mind?

Trudeau’s own description of his governing style makes him seem like nothing more than the cool kid who brings weed to a high school party. If there happen to be two groups at the party negotiating a deal of some sort, he’s unaware of it. His only goal is just to make everyone “happy.” So, how could one group’s offer of a free spa treatment influence his behaviour?

Trudeau’s second prong was to insist the Aga Khan was an old family friend. Here Dawson, perhaps inadvertently, makes the PM appear kind of pathetic.

Trudeau claimed a lifelong friendship with the Aga Khan, who he claims to have called “Uncle K” even after he became an adult. But Dawson provides a very different picture.

The Aga Khan did vacation with Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, when Justin was a child. The younger Trudeau was part of a larger family entourage.

But for nearly 30 years after that, the Aga Khan had exactly one contact with the current PM — a kind note in 2000 at the time of his father’s passing.

The Aga Khan then struck up the tenuous relationship again after Trudeau became Liberal leader in 2013. This Trudeau seems to have misinterpreted as a sign of true mutual affection from a man nearly 40 years his senior.

However, as Dawson points out, the Aga Khan has deliberately cultivated similar relationships with most PMs since the ’70s, largely because he likes to collect matching donations for his development projects and because he sometimes finds it useful to call on the Canadian PM (whoever it is at the time) to help mediate his disputes with other international political or business leaders.

Only the Trudeaus seem to have interpreted this strategic relationship as the kind of genuine friendship that justifies three separate private, tropical holidays.

Dawson leaves the impression that Trudeau and his wife are a fascinating combination of arrogance and naivety. They appear to possess a deeply rooted set of entitlement and celebrity fascination, yet at the same time suffer an inferiority complex regarding the truly rich and famous.

They seem to think they are now part of the international hobnobbery, yet are almost uncouth in the way they invite themselves into the glitterati’s social circle.

Overall, it’s kind of tragic.