Justin Trudeau’s (Not-So-Excellent) Khanflict of Interest Adventure
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a spot of bother. Over the Christmas holiday, Trudeau was lost. Where was the Left’s favorite son? The media wanted to know and so did the citizenry. Where were the Trudeaus spending their Christmas? What were they wearing? What did their Christmas tree look like? These were all important questions. Before everyone could yawn and go back to their pudding, the press corps realized that our leader was nowhere to be found. Was he under the Speaker’s Chair? In the garden? Or was he frozen solid in a snow bank next to the Rideau Canal? Was he clinging to a plastic Santa in a mall car park? Everyone wanted answers, everyone was worried sick.
To add insult to injury, the PM declared 2017, the year of Canada’s 150th anniversary since Confederation, to be the year that we should all enjoy the greatness of Canada together. Funnily enough, he wasn’t even here. Canada’s Governor General, David Johnston, presided over Parliament Hill’s New Year’s Eve party, which featured music, fireworks, and frivolity. Ironically enough, Johnston even tweeted: “Where better to kick off #Canada150 than on Parliament Hill?”
Where exactly had Trudeau been? David Akin, the intrepid reporter who broke the story about Trudeau’s Christmas whereabouts revealed that Canada’s PM and his family spent the holiday with the Aga Khan, the billionaire spiritual leader of Ismaili Muslims, at his private island in the Bahamas.
Not only is the Aga Khan a Muslim spiritual leader, he’s also the director and chairman of an organization that is registered under federal law to lobby the government for foreign aid shekels. Federal laws set out strict policy rules regarding interactions between public office holders and lobbyists. According to one lawyer, there is no interpretation of the Conflict of interest Act that would permit the Trudeaus to accept flights on the Khan’s private helicopter.
On Thursday 12 January 2017, Justin Trudeau’s office finally admitted that he was a passenger aboard the Aga Khan’s private helicopter whilst Island hopping around the Bahamas. Trudeau was accompanied by Seamus O’Regan, the Member of Parliament (MP) for St. John’s South – Mount Pearl (a federal riding in Newfoundland’s provincial capital); O’Regan’s husband (yes, you read that right, husband) Stelios (a.k.a. Steve) Doussis; and Liberal party president Anna Gainey along with her husband, Tom Pitfield.
On Monday 9 January 2017, a Conservative MP named Andrew Scheer requested that Mary Dawson, Parliament’s Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner, formally investigate whether Trudeau had violated federal law when he accepted the Aga Khan’s invitation to Bell Island in the Bahamas. As per David Akin, the archipelago where the Aga Khan’s island is located boasts several posh, high profile neighbours. Islands or parts thereof are owned by Roger Waters (of Pink Floyd fame), Larry Ellison, Shakira, Eddie Murphy, Mel Gibson, and Nicolas Cage.
Trudeau maintains that this was a private, family vacation with a family friend. The Aga Khan had even been a pall bearer at Pierre Trudeau’s funeral; Justin has known him since he was a little snot nosed toddler. If only it were that simple. It doesn’t take too much research to reveal that Trudeau is a globalist whose pursuit of carbon pricing taxes whilst roaring around on private fuel guzzling helicopters is widespread and contradictory. Trudeau’s Island hopping compatriot, the aforementioned Seamus O’Reagen told Akin, with a straight face, that no government business was discussed on the trip. Sure Seamus, sure, not even your husband believes that falsehood. Hypocrisy doesn’t seem to matter to Left wing power wielders though; and now Mr. Gay-Pride-Parade is in big conflict of interest trouble.
More will come of this, however, and not just from a conflict of interest/ethical standpoint. Could it be that Trudeau was being influenced by a prominent Islamist? Is the fact that a Somalian has recently been named Canada’s immigration minister just a coincidence? We shall see.
