TRUDEAU ETHICS BREACH PALES NEXT TO OTHERS

Just because he’s the first, doesn’t mean he’s the worst. Yes, Justin Trudeau has become the first sitting prime minister in Canadian history to officially be cited for violating parliamentary ethics rules.

Compared with some of the ethical breaches made by previous prime ministers, however, Trudeau’s violations are mild.

On Dec. 20, Mary Dawson, the conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, released a scathing 66-page report stating that four sections of the Conflict of Interest Code for Members of the House of Commons were violated when Trudeau and/or his family accepted not one, not two, but three vacations to the private island owned by the Aga Khan, who is a registered lobbyist with the office of the prime minister.

Trudeau and his family vacationed on the Aga Khan’s island, called Bells Cay, in the Bahamas, from Dec. 26, 2016, to Jan. 4, 2017, after Trudeau’s wife, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, asked the Aga Khan for the favour. The PM had also accepted a vacation on Bells Cay in December 2014, as leader of the federal Liberal party, before becoming PM in October 2015. Sophie Trudeau had also asked the Aga Khan for a previous vacation for herself, her children and a friend in March 2016.

Since there “were ongoing official dealings with the Aga Khan” when Trudeau and his family accepted these lucrative vacations and private flights ... the vacations accepted by Trudeau or his family could reasonably be seen to have been given to influence Trudeau in his capacity as prime minister,” states Dawson in the report.

Trudeau has long maintained that the Aga Khan is a “close family friend,” since receiving gifts from friends is exempt from ethics rules. But Dawson disagrees.

She says his dad, Pierre Trudeau, had a friendship with the Aga Khan “30 years earlier.”

“There were no private interactions between Mr. Trudeau and the Aga Khan until Mr. Trudeau became leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. This led me to conclude that their relationship cannot be described as one of friends for the purposes of the act,” the report concludes.

Trudeau also violated the act when he and his family accepted travel on the Aga Khan’s helicopter last December and when his family accepted travel on the “non-commercial chartered aircraft arranged by the Aga Khan in March 2016.”

Trudeau apologized during a news conference Dec. 20, in which the PM was clearly rattled and even less articulate than usual while off script.

“(The report) makes it very clear I should have taken precautions and cleared my family vacation and dealings with the Aga Khan in advance. I’m sorry I didn’t,” he said of the vacation that still cost the taxpayers $215,000, mostly for security.

But what about former prime minister Paul Martin and his family-owned company, Canada Steamship Lines?

Despite his professed sanctimony about the environment and workers’ rights, he reflagged several of its formerly Canadian-registered ships with different flags of convenience from other countries, where safety, environmental and labour laws are lax. Canadian crew members were even replaced with less costly Ukrainian staff.

Then there’s former Liberal prime minister Jean Chretien, who inarguably ran the most scandal-plagued government in modern Canadian history. Remember the Liberal sponsorship scandal or AdScam?

How about Shawinigate? In 1996, Chretien, who had been prime minister for three years, called Francois Beaudoin, then president of the $5-billion federal Business Development Bank of Canada. Chretien urged Beaudoin to support a request for a $1.6-million loan to Yvon Duhaime, the owner of the Auberge GrandMere, in Chretien’s riding of Shawinigan, Que.

Chretien claimed that he had sold the inn in 1993. However, when he made the call to Beaudoin, he still hadn’t been paid by Duhaime for his shares in the adjacent golf course, but Beaudoin was told by Chretien that he had no interests, direct or otherwise, in the file. It was a lie Chretien was forced to admit later on as the scandal unfolded. Without Beaudoin’s knowledge, a $615,000 loan was given to Duhaime by the BDC. It wasn’t until Duhaime tried to get another $200,000 loan that Beaudoin learned of the original loan and the prime minister’s involvement. Because of Duhaime’s criminal convictions and bad credit history, Beaudoin called in the loan. That’s when the bank president’s life started to turn into a nightmare as Chretien’s cronies tried to destroy the man and his family in an example of political thuggery and abuse of power that remains unmatched.

Chretien appointed a good friend, Michel Vennat, to be chairman of the BDC. Then, Jean Carle, the director of operations in Chretien’s office, was hired as a senior VP at the bank. Soon afterward, Beaudoin was pushed out of his job for defying Chretien.

As reported by Greg Weston in a February 2004 Toronto Sun report, Quebec Superior Court Justice Andre Denis ruled that Beaudoin “suffered an unspeakable injustice as a result of this matter.” Denis added Beaudoin was the victim of a campaign to “break him and ruin his career.”

Beaudoin’s home and cottage were searched by BDC lawyers and accountants. Later, Vennat formally requested that the RCMP investigate Beaudoin for “misappropriation” of funds. The RCMP also raided Beaudoin’s Montreal home and his locker at the Royal Montreal Golf Club. The Prime Minister’s Office even tipped off a reporter about the raid on Beaudoin’s house before it happened, proving the RCMP were marching to Chretien’s orders.

It took four years before Beaudoin received justice in court. Denis ruled that Carle lied in court and Vennat’s testimony was not credible. Chretien used his appointing powers, police powers and his government’s deep financial resources to mete out vengeance against someone who defied him. Chretien was never formally sanctioned at all, because the rules were lax.

In other words, Trudeau’s shady vacations look like fluffy kittens on the government-scandal scale compared to the vicious crocodile that is Chretien’s Auberge Grand-Mere debacle and the leviathan that was AdScam.

Finally, ethics rules are being upheld, even if there are no consequences, other than shame. The big problem for Trudeau, however, is his controversy can be summed up in a sentence, and is therefore, easier to remember and chat about. Politically, anyway, that makes it much worse.

Licia Corbella is a Postmedia columnist.

Trudeau’s shady vacations look like fluffy kittens ... compared to the vicious crocodile that is Chretien’s Auberge Grand-Mere debacle and the leviathan that was AdScam.