Boyle meeting indicts Trudeau’s judgment
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Dec. 19 meeting with returned captive Joshua Boyle and his family was questionable when first revealed last month. Boyle’s past associations, pronouncements and his stated reasons for taking his pregnant wife to a Taliban-controlled war zone in Afghanistan — on a backpacking trip — should have raised concern. It looks much worse now, as Boyle faces 15 charges, include eight counts of assault, two counts of unlawful confinement and one count of misleading police for alleged crimes that occurred almost immediately upon his return to Canada in October, though none have been proven in court. While the Liberal government is usually eager to promote their celebrity PM, news of the Boyle meeting came via the family’s Twitter account. The Prime Minister’s Office confirmed it happened, but refused comment citing privacy reasons. This struck many Canadians as odd. While anyone with a heart was glad to hear the Boyle children were no longer in captivity, Boyle’s explanation that he was merely a “pilgrim” didn’t sit right. The added fact he’s the ex-husband of Omar Khadr’s sister Zaynab, part of Canada’s most notorious terror family, also disturbed Canadians. Given such reasonable apprehensions,
Was this really someone who should have been granted a private audience with the PM?”
was this really someone who should have been granted a private audience with the PM? Of course not. It displayed lousy judgment. Making matters worse, Trudeau’s meeting with Boyle likely took place while a police investigation was underway. Did the PMO know this? They won’t say and declined comment because of the ongoing criminal trial. But as Senator Vern White, a former Ottawa Police Chief said, there is only one system where names under investigation are logged so if Trudeau’s security detail ran his name it should have come up. This seems to suggest they either didn’t run a check on a man for whom many questions still linger or they did run it and the PM met with him anyway. It’s hard to say which is worse. What can be said without any doubt is the Boyle family meeting was just the latest in a series of decisions by our PM that profoundly call his judgment into question.