The Aga Khan scandal

 

By Kati Whilyer

 

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has recently raised more than a few eyebrows regarding his controversial visit to the Aga Khan’s private island in the Bahamas. While Trudeau claims his visit was innocent, identifying the Aga Khan as an “old family friend,” many people are questioning the ethics and timing of his visit to the wealthy leader’s private island.

 

Prince Shah Karim Al Hussaini is the fourth Aga Khan, the spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Ismailis, who follow a branch of Shia Islam. While Trudeau does indeed have connections to the Aga Khan – the Aga Khan was a pallbearer at his father’s funeral – some people are questioning the ethics of this visit, including Canada’s ethics commissioner. After all, Trudeau isn’t just an ordinary person: he is the Prime Minister of Canada. And, as some critics point out, regardless of the Aga Khan’s long-term ties to the Trudeau family, as well as other Canadian political elites, Trudeau’s visit to the Aga Khan’s island has seriously called his ability to check his privilege into question. As CBC reporter, Aaron Wherry writes, the Aga Khan incident represents “a rarefied sort of scandal of the sort that few, if any, other prime ministers could have walked into.”

 

The Aga Khan is not only the wealthy and powerful leader of the Ismaili Muslims, he is also a philanthropist with direct political and monetary ties to Canada. For example, the Aga Khan is the chairman of the board for the Global Centre for Pluralism, an institution in Ottawa. Incidentally, in 2015, the federal government pledged a $15-million grant to the institution.

 

Given this rather sizeable grant, Trudeau’s visit to the Aga Khan’s island naturally raises questions of privilege and patronage. Further to that, however, the Trudeau family used a private helicopter to get to the Aga Kahn’s private tropical island without first asking the permission of the ethics commissioner. In fact, while the Prime Minister hasn’t been charged with any degree of corruption, he has been found to have violated sections 5, 11, 12, and 21 of the Conflict of Interest Act.

 

In her ruling, the ethics commissioner took the view that Trudeau’s visit to the Aga Khan did indeed break ethical codes and constitute a conflict of interest. While she conceded that Trudeau and the Aga Khan have a “warm relationship rooted in family history,” the commissioner also expressed her concern that the Aga Kahn’s invitation to the Trudeau family would likely not have occurred “had there not been official interactions between the Government of Canada and the Aga Khan, and had Mr. Trudeau not become a significant player on the Canadian political scene.”

 

There are no legal penalties for what may, at best, be Trudeau’s failure in this visit, though the Aga Khan scandal has opened him up to criticism from political opponents and private citizens.