PM’s conflict ruling no joking matter

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau seems to think being the first sitting PM to violate a federal statute is something to chuckle about. It’s unlikely many Canadians share this assessment.

On Tuesday morning, Trudeau appeared on a Hamilton radio show in advance of a town hall appearance there on a national tour that included a town hall Thursday night in London.

As The Canadian Press explained the radio show appearance: “Trudeau told hosts Sunni Genesco and Matt Hayes, who were in Punta Cana, that he’d consider attending their 25th anniversary party in May, but that he’d have to think carefully about it if the event is to be held in Mexico, apparently referencing his family’s contentious December 2016 visit to the Aga Khan’s Bahamian island.”

Former ethics commissioner Mary Dawson found Trudeau’s choices around the trip broke four of the 19 rules in the federal Conflict of Interest Act. We get humour.

But Trudeau’s violations don’t seem like something he should make light of.

The night before, in Halifax, Trudeau was asked by a woman at another town hall: “I was just curious as to how you feel about being the first prime minister being found guilty of a federal crime?”

Trudeau again joked in response, saying “as you can see, we thoroughly vetted the questions before showing up tonight.”

(The PM was, in fact, not found guilty of a federal crime under the Criminal Code of Canada, rather of breaking a law — the Conflict of Interest Act.)

We applaud Trudeau for meeting with regular people to take questions via this town hall process. To the point of Trudeau’s joke, it’s not like they only brought in card-carrying Liberals to lob softball questions.

But the PM’s lighthearted deflections of the very troubling findings of Dawson’s Trudeau Report, as it’s called, are inappropriate.

The findings were incredibly serious and Trudeau got off easy.

He’s yet to face opposition questioning in the House of Commons. He’s not going to appear before the ethics committee, as some MPs requested.

Nor is he facing serious repercussions. This part is key.

Dawson previously said there should be more teeth in the Conflict of Interest Act, to enable her to level punishments beyond a few hundred bucks.

Trudeau should take his own promises about accountability more seriously and act with humility, not misplaced humour.