Federal Conservatives want the RCMP to reopen an investigation that ended more than four years ago, which is examining whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau committed a crime by accepting a free holiday on the private island of the Bahamas, owned by Aga Khan.
Trudeau accepted the invitation from Aga Khan to spend the Christmas holidays in 2016 on his island in the Bahamas. Trudeau flew to Nassau on an RCAF plane, but from there Aga Khan’s helicopter took Trudeau to the island, where he, his wife Sophie, then MP but now Labor Minister Seamus O’Regan, and some Liberal Party officials enjoyed the hospitality. of Aga Khan.
The Commissioner for Conflict of Interest and Ethics in Parliament will subsequently determine that Trudeau violated the provisions of the Conflict of Interest Act by accepting what she considers gifts from the Aga Khan Foundation, whose organization, The Aga Khan Foundation, then received grants from the federal government for its humanitarian work.
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Meanwhile, Conservative Party researchers have filed a request under the Access to Information Act (ATI) with the RCMP to determine what steps investigators have taken to determine whether Trudeau has violated other laws.
Read more: Why Justin Trudeau’s trip to Aga Khan Island matters
The results of this request from ATI were recently provided to the party and the party in turn provided them to several news organizations, including Global News. Among the 623 pages of RCMP documents published by the Conservatives was a block diagram of a “decision tree” drawn up by investigators to determine whether, by accepting the vacation offered by Aga Khan, Trudeau could be accused of fraud. of the government.
According to the documents, investigators have concluded that there are all but one potential charge of fraud, and that the charge is unlikely to be confirmed due to the missing element: government officials are entitled to gifts such as travel and vacations as long as they have the written permission of the head of his department. Civil servants who do not have this written permission can be charged with “government fraud.” But in the decision tree and elsewhere in RCMP documents released to conservatives, investigators say it is “unknown” whether Trudeau had “the written consent of the head of the government branch he worked for.”
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RCMP investigators created this “decision tree” as part of their investigation into Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s 2017 vacation. Aga Khan. This decision tree is among the 563 pages of documents that the RCMP provided to the Conservative Party as a result of a request for access to information. RCMP
The RCMP documents explain the specific difficulties with this case: as Prime Minister, Trudeau is the “head of government” and so, technically, there will be no one with the authority to give him permission.
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The RCMP has closed its investigation without bringing charges against Trudeau.
On August 19, 2019, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucky wrote to then-Conservative MP Peter Kent – Kent had filed an initial criminal complaint – telling him that the RCMP “… has decided that it cannot productively conduct a criminal investigation”.
This decision was made after the facts of the matter were reviewed not only by investigators from the RCMP’s Sensitive and International Investigation Team, but also by other senior members of the force, including Lucky herself. And as a good measure, investigators asked for an outside lawyer to review their findings that no charges have been filed.
Read more: Conservatives want review of RCMP’s refusal to investigate Trudeau-Aga Khan trip
But on Tuesday in the House of Commons, Trudeau answered a question from interim opposition leader Candice Bergen that “No”, he did not have written permission for the Aga Khan holiday.
This revelation in the eyes of Conservative MP James Besan could change the outcome of the RCMP’s decision tree and, according to Bezan, is enough to call for a new investigation.
“In my respect, Mr Trudeau’s answer to this question requires the national police force to reopen the case and launch a criminal investigation immediately,” Bezan said in a letter to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucky.
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“The prime minister’s office is now under a cloud of suspicion. Mr Trudeau’s integrity and honesty are now in question. “
Global News contacted the RCMP, as well as the Office of Conflict of Interest and Ethics Commissioner Mario Dion, to ask if the additional information required further scrutiny.
“All inspections are conducted confidentially to preserve the integrity and fairness of the investigation process, so we cannot provide more information about any of the inspections at this time,” a Dion spokesman said.
“A report will be issued at the end of the review, which, as you know, is publicly available.”
The RCMP has not yet responded.
With a file by Amanda Connolly from Global.
© 2022 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
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