NDP press for speedy Trudeau investigation

OTTAWA • The federal New Democrats asked Monday for a speedy investigation into alleged violations of the Conflict of Interest Act by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

The National Post reported Monday that Mary Dawson, Parliament’s conflict of interest and ethics commissioner, has opened an official examination into Trudeau’s trip to determine if he violated the act. Trudeau is the first prime minister for which Dawson has found “reasonable grounds” to pursue a fullscale investigation.

“We believe it is critical that you respond swiftly to this violation in order to defend the importance of the act,” NDP Leader Thomas Mulcair and NDP MP Alexandre Boulerice say in a letter sent Monday to Dawson.

Trudeau, in Halifax where he is continuing a national “listening tour,” told one radio station host that he takes the commissioner’s decision to investigate “very seriously.” He told another radio host that he had, in fact, read the Conflict of Interest Act. But when asked why he did not clear the New Year’s holiday ahead of time with Dawson, Trudeau could not provide an answer.

Dawson is considering two potential violations of the Conflict of Interest Act, according to a letter she sent to one of the two Conservative MPs who filed separate formal complaints about Trudeau’s holiday at the Bahamas island owned by the billionaire philanthropist and spiritual leader the Aga Khan.

A copy of that letter was provided to the Post and in it, Dawson said she believes that, based on reports she has read in the National Post, there are grounds to investigate Trudeau for, first, a potential conflict of interest in receiving a free vacation from the Aga Khan, the founder and a director of an organization that is a federally registered lobbyist and, second, for potentially violating a section of the act that prohibits all ministers from using private aircraft.

“We know you are already looking into the entire trip — which the Prime Minister apparently failed to disclose to your office and then tried to hide from the public as well. We recognize that a full investigation of the inappropriate trip may take some time, but the use of private aircraft is a clear-cut violation that could be addressed more swiftly,” Mulcair and Boulerice wrote.

“We are therefore requesting that you fast-track this piece of your investigation and that you make a clear declaration that the Prime Minister has broken the law.”

Dawson’s office would not comment on the timing of the investigation other than to say that, as soon as her examination is complete, her findings will be made public.

Dawson spokeswoman Jocelyn Brisebois also says that “strictly speaking,” the Trudeau investigation is not the first investigation into the activities of a prime minister.

Brisebois noted that in 2009, Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay complained to the commissioner that thenprime minister Stephen Harper, several ministers and others contravened the Conflict of Interest Act when the government engaged in its advertising campaign around what became known as the Economic Action Plan.

By law, Dawson was required to look into Hall Findlay’s complaint but, within a month, determined there were no reasonable grounds to pursue a full investigation of Harper, and so she dropped it.

This time, though, Dawson has concluded there are “reasonable grounds” to act on a complaint by a Conservative MP to pursue an investigation into Trudeau’s vacation, making this investigation a first of its kind for a sitting prime minister.

Mary Dawson