Mary Dawson appears before the Committee on Access to Information, Confidentiality and Ethics of the Ottawa House of Commons on 10 January 2018. Adrian Wilde / The Canadian Press
Mary Dawson said she never intended to call the RCMP to investigate Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for fraud when she ruled as then-Federal Ethics Commissioner that he had violated conflict of interest rules by taking a paid trip. to the privacy of Aga Khan Island in the Bahamas in 2016
In an interview Thursday, Ms. Dawson said the RCMP had never contacted her to discuss her findings from 2017 and she had no idea they had launched an investigation into Mr Trudeau for potential fraud.
“There was never any connection with the criminal authorities when I conducted this investigation,” she said.
She declined to say whether she believes Mounties should resume its investigation in 2019 into the prime minister’s controversial family vacation, as conservatives have demanded.
“They will have to figure it out for themselves,” said Ms. Dawson, whose term as ethics commissioner expired in January 2018.
Conservatives are calling on the RCMP to continue a criminal investigation into Trudeau’s trip to Aga Khan in 2016.
Ms. Dawson also said that when she released her damn report on Trudeau’s family vacation, she was unaware of a provision in the Penal Code that could lead to allegations of fraud against the prime minister.
“Nothing warned me then that there would be a potential criminal charge,” she said. “I did not know a specific provision in the criminal law that would apply to this.”
Asked why she did not consider sending her report to the RCMP, she said: “I have not thought about it. It didn’t occur to me. And no one came near me. “
Ms. Dawson’s report, which formed the basis of the 2019 RCMP investigation, was published on December 20, 2017 and found that the Prime Minister had violated four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act. She criticized Mr Trudeau for a free holiday in the resort of Aga Khan when the Ismaili Muslim leader had millions of dollars in deals with the Canadian government.
RCMP documents show that the forces believed there were reasonable grounds to accuse Mr Trudeau of fraud in accepting a free holiday from someone doing business with the government. But in documents circulated to conservatives under the Access to Information Act, Mounties said “it is not clear whether Mr Trudeau can be prosecuted under section 121 (1) (c) of the Penal Code, as the section has a provision which allows officials to accept benefits from persons with public affairs, provided that the official has the written consent of the head of their branch of government. “
As Mr Trudeau is the head of government, the RCMP said it was unclear whether he had the authority to allow himself to accept the gift.
“I was not particularly aware of this particular provision and it was not brought to my attention in any way,” Ms Dawson said on Thursday.
During a question period on Tuesday, Mr Trudeau said he had not given himself permission to take a luxury holiday in the Bahamas.
On Wednesday, the Conservatives wrote to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucky to formally ask her to launch a criminal investigation against the prime minister.
The RCMP said on Thursday that it supported a statement issued last week that it was pleased with its decision not to charge fraud against Mr Trudeau. On 22 April, the RCMP stated that they had carried out an “in-depth and impartial analysis” and their findings had been confirmed by two separate third parties, including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Review and Complaints Commission.
During the question period on Thursday, conservatives continued to push for the issue, saying there appears to be one law for the prime minister and another law for Canadians.
“He accepted a luxury vacation on a private island for $ 215,000 from someone who is actively lobbying the government for millions of taxpayers’ money,” said conservative ethics critic James Bezon. “He admitted that he did not have permission to take the trip. The RCMP has all the pieces of the puzzle they need now to accuse the Prime Minister of fraud against the government.
Conservatives have called on the prime minister to speak actively with the RCMP.
Deputy Prime Minister Christia Freeland avoided these issues, saying Ms Dawson had already investigated the issue in depth and called on conservatives to move to more pressing issues, such as climate change.
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