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Dawson also concludes that Trudeau broke the ethics code when he travelled on the Aga Khan’s private helicopter.

Moreover, she says Trudeau didn’t properly recuse himself on two occasions in May 2016 from private meetings about the Aga Khan and a $15-million grant to the billionaire philanthropist’s endowment fund of the Global Centre for Pluralism.

Speaking to reporters, Trudeau apologized for not going to Dawson before the vacation to get her clearance — something Dawson hinted she may have given.

Trudeau said he didn’t believe the vacation would be an ethical concern because he still considers the Aga Khan a friend, disagreeing with Dawson’s conclusions on that score.

In future, he said he plans to ask the ethics commissioner to clear all his family vacations.

“This is an important issue. We have a system in place to protect the integrity of the (prime minister’s) office,” he said.

“It is important that as we move forward, we learn from this mistake. I take full responsibility for it.”

Dawson’s long-awaited report chides the prime minister for not coming to her office before travelling to the Aga Khan’s island last year, and notes that Trudeau also didn’t follow his own ethics rules for cabinet ministers.

Trudeau’s position had been that he didn’t violate any ethics rules because of the long-running family connection to the Aga Khan, which began in the 1960s when Pierre Trudeau was prime minister.

But Dawson notes that between 1983 and 2013, the younger Trudeau and the Aga Khan only interacted once at the elder Trudeau’s funeral.

The prime minister told Dawson that it wasn’t until he was Liberal leader and then prime minister that he felt he could have a closer relationship with the Aga Khan, similar to the one his father had.

Dawson calls this admirable, but says that a prime minister “must unfortunately put on hold his pursuits of friendships with individuals with whom he is likely to have official dealings.”