Woke, hunky Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is being investigated by ethics officials after accepting vacation freebies from an Islamic leader during a trip to the Bahamas.
The Liberal – who presents a squeaky-clean image and is the darling of social progressives worldwide – is the first ever Canadian PM to prompt such questions over his moral character.
Trudeau is being investigated after political rivals raised questions about his New Year’s trip to Bell Island, a private tropical paradise owned by Aga Khan IV – spiritual leader to some 25 million Shia Muslims.
The freebie is a potential violation because the Aga Khan is a registered lobbyist in Canada, thanks to his Aga Khan Foundation Canada.
Trudeau is also being probed over apparently breaching a second part of the law, which is a blanket ban on Canadian ministers travelling by private aircraft.
Trudeau admitted travelling on the Aga Khan’s helicopter. The relevant part of the law states:
No minister of the Crown, minister of state or parliamentary secretary, no member of his or her family and no ministerial adviser or ministerial staff shall accept travel on non-commercial chartered or private aircraft for any purpose unless required in his or her capacity as a public office holder or in exceptional circumstances or with the prior approval of the Commissioner.
The investigation was revealed Monday by Canada’s National Post, which was passed a letter from ethics commissioner Mary Dawson. The entire trip was kept secret until after he got back.
And Trudeau has been reluctant to discuss the trip since, which he called a “personal family vacation”, batting away questions at a recent press event.
The Conflict of Interest Act was passed by Trudeau’s predecessor, Stephen Harper, in 2007.
Harper was accused of breaching it himself, but the ethics commissioner never found “reasonable grounds” to investigate him – unlike Trudeau, whose alleged breaches have already passed this test.
Even if found guilty on both counts, Trudeau would only have to pay a $1,000 fine.
But it would be another blow to his once-spotless reputation. His shine has been further dimmed recently by questions over his family’s charitable foundation, echoing those which dogged Hillary Clinton.
Even before then, Trudeau was battered by accusations he is a “fake feminist”, an unedifying incident in Parliament where he elbowed a female MP in the chest, getting snubbed on a royal visit by three-year-old Prince George and, not least, the rocky state of Canada’s economy.