Trudeau reveals his gift from Aga Khan

What do a sitting prime minister and a billionaire spiritual leader give each other for Christmas? The surprisingly dull answer, apparently, is a sweater and overnight bag.

Justin Trudeau finally unwrapped that detail in the House of Commons on Tuesday, after taking heat from the media and the opposition over what gifts he had received from the Aga Khan on his infamous Christmas vacation in 2016.

The ethics commissioner ruled in December that the trip, which involved a private helicopter ride to the Aga Khan’s island, violated Canada’s conflict-of-interest laws because it constituted a gift from someone doing business with the government and who didn’t qualify for an exception as a family friend.

But what happened to those Christmas gifts after the whole trip was ruled illegal? That remains a mystery. The gifts were initially mentioned in the report on the trip tabled Dec. 20, 2017, by then-ethics commissioner Mary Dawson.

“From December 26, 2016, to January 4, 2017, Mr. Trudeau and his family, and their friends, spent their Christmas holidays on Bells Cay along with the Aga Khan, his children and their families,” the report said. “The Trudeau family exchanged Christmas gifts with the Aga Khan and his family.”

The report never said what the gifts were, so Conservative MP Kevin Waugh filed an order paper question in the House of Commons asking for details. The response only said that the gifts were disclosed to the ethics commissioner.

Then CBC published a story explaining that an odd loophole meant that if the gifts were found to breach ethics laws, they wouldn’t be disclosed on the public registry — and thus the public wouldn’t know about them.

That kicked off a ruckus in question period, and prompted Trudeau to reveal what the gifts were.

“Not only did the prime minister accept an illegal trip to a private island, he went there and received additional gifts from someone who is actively lobbying the government,” said Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer. “Those are the facts. Will the prime minister come clean and tell Canadians, did he return those illegal and unacceptable gifts before he could be lobbied again?”

Trudeau said he worked with the ethics commissioner’s office all of last year to provide full transparency on the trip.

“If the member opposite really wants to know, I gave him a sweater and he gave me an overnight bag,” Trudeau said.

He didn’t, however, say whether the gifts were returned after the trip was found to be illegal.

Asked the same question by the National Post, the Prime Minister’s Office said only that all gifts were disclosed to the ethics commissioner, and that Trudeau accepts the report’s findings and is following the commissioner’s recommendations.