Justin Trudeau will not be summoned before the ethics committee

AFP

Maxime Huard

Tuesday, January 9, 2018 16:30

UPDATE
Tuesday, 9 January 2018 18:29

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OTTAWA-The prime minister Justin Trudeau will not have to explain himself before the ethics committee of the House of commons about the report showing that it has contravened the act with his vacation at the home of the Aga Khan in December 2016.

The members of the committee were meeting Tuesday for a special meeting to vote on a motion conservative. The official opposition wanted the prime minister to be summoned before the committee next week.

In the majority, the elected liberals easily defeated the motion. The six liberals on the committee voted against it. The three opposition mps (two conservatives and a new democrat) supported it.

After an investigation of several months, the ethics commissioner Mary Dawson filed December 20, last its report to Trudeau. It was concluded that the prime minister has breached four articles of the Law on conflict of interest when he stayed on the private island of the Aga Khan, billionaire spiritual leader, of 26 December 2016 to 4 January 2017.

“It is the responsibility of the prime minister to make himself available to discuss the report,” said conservative Peter Kent at the time of submitting the motion, calling on the liberals to vote according to their conscience.

The liberals have instead argued that Justin Trudeau had already held a press conference on the subject, that he had apologized and that he could continue to answer questions in the House of commons.

At the end of the meeting, the opposition denounced a command policy. “I think it’s actually a command that comes from the office of the prime minister”, has launched the conservative mp Jacques Gourde in scrum.

“They came out and just repeated the party’s position. They repeated it word for word arguments which, I presume, have been prepared by the office of the prime minister”, lamented on its side, the new democrat member of parliament Nathan Cullen.

The two opposition parties argue that the liberals have sent the message that the prime minister is above the law.

The only two liberals to be expressed before the vote were denied, at the end of the meeting, obeying orders from above. “I have prepared my own lines,” assured the mp Mona Fortier. His colleague Nathanael Erskine-Smith abounded in the same sense.

The office of the prime minister has assured respect for the independence of committees.

If the prime minister will ultimately not called to testify, the ethics commissioner, outgoing, she will answer questions from the elected representatives of the committee on Wednesday.

Considering that the prime minister not to expose him to any penalty in connection with the report, the opposition hope to hear Mary Dawson on the changes that could be made to give teeth to the law.