Aga Khan affair

The Aga Khan affair was a political scandal in Canada involving Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. In 2017, Trudeau was found guilty of violating sections 5,11,12, and 21[1] of the Federal Conflict of Interest Act by accepting private-island vacations, gifts, and flights from the Aga Khan, a philanthropist and spiritual leader of the Shia Ismaili religion. This was deemed significant as the Aga Khan Foundation, a registered lobby, had received over $50 million of federal funding in 2016.

Justin Trudeau adopted the position that he and the Aga Khan were close friends, and the trips were of a personal nature. This was ostensibly supported by a close relationship between Trudeau’s father, Pierre Elliot Trudeau, and the Aga Khan. Furthermore in 1983, when Justin Trudeau was twelve years old, their two families had undertaken a vacation together to Greece.

Then-Ethics Commissioner Mary Dawson stated in her ruling however that Justin Trudeau and the Aga Khan had undertaken no serious social interactions for thirty years outside a single instance at the funeral of Pierre Elliot Trudeau; and that, “there were no private interactions between Mr. Trudeau and the Aga Khan until Mr. Trudeau became Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada. This led me to conclude that their relationship cannot be described as one of friends for the purposes of the Act.”