(Ottawa) A Radio-Canada report that shone the spotlight on Justin Trudeau’s new luxury vacation provided ammunition for Pierre Poilievre – the same one who had in the previous hours taxed the media as a propaganda arm of the prime minister.
After a trip to Aga Khan Island that earned him ethical reprimand, a surfing trip to Tofino for which he apologized, as it coincided with the first Truth and Reconciliation Day , the Prime Minister is still in troubled waters.
This time, it is those of Jamaica. The Trudeau clan celebrated the New Year on the island, at an estate owned by members of the Green family, where the cost of an overnight stay in a villa fluctuates between US$1,100 and US$7,000 during the holiday season.
Our family has been friends with this family for 50 years, and as with all vacations, we work with the Ethics Commissioner to ensure that all rules are followed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, before question period
The Independent Agent of Parliament was consulted ahead of the trip, which cost taxpayers a whopping $162,000, largely ($115,000) for security-related expenses for the Prime Minister and his family, such as as reported by Radio-Canada.
The equivalent of plane tickets for Justin Trudeau – who cannot travel on commercial aircraft – and his family have been reimbursed, his office said. What nights in a villa? Did the Prime Minister pay for them out of pocket?
The opposition parties tried, in vain, to extract this information from the House of Commons, where a flood of questions awaited Justin Trudeau on Tuesday, after a break of just over two weeks of parliamentary work.
Everyone has their super rich
Because in addition to being well-off, the Green family contributes to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, an element which has provided a golden opportunity for opponents of the Liberals to reconsider the recent torments of the charitable organization.
The Prime Minister wants us to believe that these Trudeau Foundation donors gave him a vacation […] in exchange for nothing. Nothing is free. It’s about influence and power for the super rich.
the leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, Pierre Poilievre
Neither he nor his MPs uttered the words CBC or Radio-Canada during the session, two days after Twitter CEO Elon Musk’s decision to label the public broadcaster as 69% funded media. , according to its latest assessment – by Ottawa.
But Justin Trudeau, he returned to the episode, under the theme of the super rich: “If the Leader of the Opposition wants to talk about friendships, let’s talk about the fact that he runs to his American billionaire tech giant friends. to attack the local news that Canadians rely on. Shame on him”.
In the Bloc camp, MP René Villemure mentioned the report of the state corporation, “the propaganda organ according to the Conservative Party”, he quipped, in a question nevertheless addressed to Justin Trudeau.
“It’s at [les Green] that the Prime Minister has chosen to go on vacation. How can the Prime Minister continue to pretend that he has no connection with the Trudeau Foundation? “, asserted the training ethicist.
It is not impossible that no costs were incurred for the accommodation of the Trudeau family, indicated to The Press a government source. The Trudeaus and the Greens are very close – Pierre Elliott Trudeau was godfather to Alexander Green, born in 1980.
“A question of perception”
In 2021, Alexander and Andrew Green created the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Scholarship within the Trudeau Foundation in memory of their mother. The value of the donation that allowed its establishment was not disclosed by the organization.
“As I have said many times, it has been 10 years since I have had any direct or indirect involvement with the foundation that bears my father’s name,” Justin Trudeau reiterated in the House of Commons on Tuesday.
The problem is that it is difficult to separate the two, says Daniel Béland, full professor of political science at McGill University: “It is true at the moment, but it is impossible to say, historically, that ‘there are no links’.
Basically, “it’s not really important to know what the details are anymore, even if we’re going to look at that”, because since the Aga Khan and Tofino, Justin Trudeau’s ethical compass has become “a matter of perception”, believes the political scientist.
In 2017, the Office of the Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner found that the Prime Minister had contravened the Conflict of Interest Act by visiting Aga Khan Island, the foundation of the latter with links to the government.