On Aga Khan’s birthday, Christmas holiday controversy still haunts Trudeau
OTTAWA — When Prime Minister Justin Trudeau planned his holiday trip a year ago, he would have had no reason to fear that the Ghost of Christmas Past would still be haunting him a year later.
Trudeau, his family and some friends, including MP Seamus O’Regan, now the minister of veterans affairs, spent their 2016 Christmas vacation on a private island in the Bahamas owned by the Aga Khan, the billionaire spiritual leader of the Ismaili Muslims.
The Prime Minister’s Office initially tried to play down the trip, refusing to say where Trudeau would spend the holiday. When it came out early in the new year that he spent the vacation in a Caribbean hideaway owned by the wealthy philanthropist, the opposition pounced.
They asked why Trudeau accepted a free vacation from a rich man whose charitable organizations, in some cases, relied on Canadian government help. The prime minister tried to brush things off, saying the Aga Khan is an old friend of his family — indeed, Trudeau wished him a happy birthday Wednesday — as well as a leader and a partner in the fight against world poverty.