OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s dealings with the Aga Khan presented ethical problems regardless of their personal relationship, Ottawa’s former ethics watchdog said Wednesday.

Mary Dawson told the House of Commons ethics committee that it didn’t matter whether or not Trudeau and the Aga Khan were personal friends — there would be ethical problems either way.

If they were not friends, as Dawson concluded in her December report, then Trudeau should not have accepted an invitation to vacation on the Aga Khan’s private Bahamian island. If they were friends, Trudeau should not have been involved in discussions about federal funding for the Aga Khan’s charitable endeavours.

“One way or another, there was going to be a problem,” Dawson said, adding that she believes the “friend exception” for gifts in the Conflict of Interest Act should be removed given the difficulty of clearly defining that type of relationship.

In an unprecedented report in December, Dawson concluded Trudeau violated multiple ethics rules in accepting a 2016 vacation on Bell Island, a private Bahamian island owned by the Aga Khan.

The spiritual leader and philanthropist had been a friend to Pierre Trudeau, the prime minister’s father, but he also is the head of the Aga Khan Foundation and the Global Centre for Pluralism in Ottawa.

Both organizations are registered to lobby the federal government and have received hundreds of millions in public funds over the years from both Conservative and Liberal governments.

In her report, Dawson concluded that while there was no evidence Trudeau was influenced by the vacation, there was the appearance of a conflict.

Liberal MPs denied an opposition bid to summon Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to an ethics committee over his dealings with the Aga Khan. Opposition MPs are accusing the Liberal members on the committee of toeing the party line. (The Canadian Press)

“Mr. Trudeau failed to arrange his private affairs in a manner that would prevent him from being placed in a conflict of interest. Neither Mr. Trudeau nor his family should have vacationed on the Aga Khan’s private island,” she said.

While Trudeau has apologized, questions about the vacation continued to dog him this week. At a town hall question-and-answer session in Lower Sackville, N.S., on Tuesday, Trudeau was asked how it felt to be the first prime minister to break the law.

Conservative MP Peter Kent introduced a motion at Wednesday’s committee meeting to invite the prime minister to respond to Dawson’s statements. It was defeated 6-3 by the Liberal MPs that form a majority on the committee. A similar motion had been defeated Tuesday. But Kent said the invitation stands.

“I quite strongly disagree — respectfully disagree — that the prime minister feels his conversation is only with the ethics commissioner and in town halls across the country. He has a duty and a responsibility as a fellow member of Parliament, not only as the first minister of this country, to discuss and to be accountable,” Kent said.

New Democrat MP Nathan Cullen said Dawson’s testimony brings up new questions for the prime minister, including whether Trudeau had been offered the trip or if he had asked to visit the island and what changes have been made in the PMO to make sure an ethical breach doesn’t happen again.

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“Mr. Trudeau had an advance copy of where this report was going, knew that the whole friendship argument was not going to get him out of trouble, and continued to use it — continued to use it last night in public meetings,” he said.

Dawson told the committee that she was satisfied with Trudeau’s response to her report. Trudeau has vowed that he will clear any future travel plans with the ethics office and apologized for his decision to vacation on Bell Island.

“It’s just unfortunate,” Dawson told reporters after the meeting. “For him. For us. For everything. But I mean, it happens. People make mistakes.”

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