OTTAWA—The federal ethics commissioner is investigating whether Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s secret family vacation to the Aga Khan’s private island broke the government’s conflict of interest law.

Questions about the appropriateness of the vacation have dogged Trudeau as he aims to connect with ordinary Canadians on his cross-country tour of coffee shops, restaurants, university campuses and public attractions.

The Aga Khan is the chair of a foundation that actively lobbies the government and has landed more than $300 million in international development contracts with the global affairs department since 2004. He is is also the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismaili Muslims.

Trudeau and his staff have repeatedly justified the trip as a “family vacation,” describing the billionaire religious leader as a friend who has known the prime minister since he was young.

On Monday, interim-Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose took to Twitter to slam the prime minister.

“Justin Trudeau believes that laws don’t apply to people like him. He’s wrong. It’s time he starts putting ordinary Canadians first,” she wrote.

After refusing for days to disclose where Trudeau was vacationing over the holidays, the Prime Minister’s Office admitted early this month that he, his family and “a few friends” spent time on the billionaire religious leader’s island retreat in the Bahamas.

Since then, in the face of media pressure, more information has trickled out about the trip — including that Trudeau’s friends on the vacation were Newfoundland MP Seamus O’Regan and Liberal Party President Anna Gainey. Trudeau also revealed last week that he travelled from the Bahamian capital to the Aga Khan’s island on the spiritual leader’s private helicopter, an admission that he may have broken federal conflict of interest law.

“As the Prime Minister said last week, we are happy to engage with the Commissioner and answer any questions she may have,” said PMO Press Secretary Cameron Ahmad in a statement to the Star.

In her letter to Conservative MP Blaine Calkins — who called for an investigation last week — Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson said she is examining whether Trudeau broke four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act. These include sections that prohibit an MP from accepting a gift “that might reasonably be seen to have been given to influence” a public office holder, and that the prime minister is not allowed to travel on a private aircraft unless facing “exceptional circumstances.”

Dawson is also looking at whether Trudeau knew or should have known about a possible conflict of interest, and whether the prime minister failed to recuse himself from official government dealings that may have presented a conflict of interest.

Ethics commissioner spokesperson Jocelyn Brisebois confirmed the office was investigating Trudeau’s trip under the Conflict of Interest Act, which doesn’t apply to non-cabinet MPs like O’Regan. Brisebois declined to comment further on the probe.

Later on Monday, New Democrat Leader Tom Muclair and Alexandre Boulerice, the party’s ethics critic, released a letter they’d penned to ethics commissioner Mary Dawson, asking her to fast-track the portion of her investigation dealing with Trudeau’s ride on the Aga Khan’s helicopter.

“The use of the aircraft is a clear-cut violation that could be addressed more quickly,” they wrote.

“Like all other Canadians who take vacations, he does not have the right to break the law.”

The Conflict of Interest Act does not have set penalties for the sections of the law that Trudeau may have broken. Among other things, Dawson would determine a penalty by weighing any history of ethics violations during the past five years, according to the act.

Some other sections of the law require a mandatory fine of up to $500 if they are broken.

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In 2009, then-Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several ministers and their parliamentary secretaries were subject to an ethics probe regarding the advertizing of the government’s infrastructure spending. That investigation was dropped four months later.

Prime Minister Trudeau was in Nova Scotia on Monday, where he was scheduled to visit a coffee shop, speak with local radio stations and participate in a town hall session with the mayor of Halifax.

— With a file from Canadian Press

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