The Shady Side Of Justin Trudeau

When Liberal leader Justin Trudeau defeated Conservative incumbent Stephen Harper for Canada's prime minister post in 2015, it was like a bright light shone across the country. "Sunny ways, my friends, sunny ways," said Trudeau about that luminescence in his victory speech, reflecting the youthful optimism that eclipsed the gloomy negativity of his ousted predecessor that night. Almost immediately after glib trumped glum, a love affair sprang up worldwide with Trudeau, who arguably won the nation's top seat via his shiny teeth, full mane, and a pedigree as the son of Pierre Elliot Trudeau, a Prime Minister who first won over Canadians with his bohemian charm in the '60s. "Canada now has a stud prime minister who's going to inject passion & energy into [the] nation's staid, safe policies," tweeted U.S. news personality Geraldo Rivera.

Over the years, the Trudeaumania 2.0 infatuation withered away when the prime minister proved he could be just as divisive as his U.S. presidential counterpart, Donald Trump. That was best exemplified by imposing the constitutionally restrictive Emergencies Act to quash a growing protest of anti-vaxxing truckers in 2022 during the pandemic. And while a commission cleared Trudeau of any wrongdoing, clouds of scandal emerging from elsewhere dimmed those sunny ways, including incidents back in the day that emerged after he entered politics. After nearly a decade in power, he's faced everything from conflict of interest violations to committing acts that may have jeopardized his family and even the integrity of Canada itself.

Justin Trudeau entered politics in 2008, leaving a teaching job to run in a federal election for a member of parliament seat in the riding of Papineau in Montreal, Quebec. Five years later, he quickly ascended the Liberal Party ranks, eventually becoming its leader in 2013. But it was while he was contending for the position in 2012 that the rival Conservatives decided to make hay over what they felt was a comment that nullified his qualifications as a leader. In an interview with Télé-Québec two years earlier, Trudeau took aim at the western Canadian province of Alberta, a region dominated by Conservatives, and the stomping grounds of Stephen Harper, the country's prime minister at the time. 

"Canada isn't doing well right now because it's Albertans who control our community and socio-democratic agenda. It doesn't work," he said in French, per CBC. He also affirmed that Canada would benefit more from politicians based in his native Quebec than from Alberta, noting, "I'm a Liberal, so of course I believe that. Certainly when we look at the great prime ministers of the 20th century, those that really stood the test of time, they were MPs from Quebec." Trudeau admitted he misspoke during that interview, but disgruntled Albertans didn't buy it. Trudeau's slights against Alberta continued, including omitting it by name when listing all the provinces that entered Confederation during a speech celebrating Canada's 150 years as a country in 2017.

Justin Trudeau snared the Liberal leadership in 2013 with a federal election only two years away. At a gathering in Toronto, Trudeau fielded a question regarding which country he most admired. His answer stunned several Canadians. "There's a level of admiration I actually have for China," replied Trudeau, according to the Toronto Sun. "Their basic dictatorship is actually allowing them to turn their economy around on a dime."

Members of Canada's Asian community, including Chinese expatriates who endured the savagery of that country's communist dictatorship, were quick to condemn Trudeau's remarks. "Can I use the word 'foolish?'" said one person as part of a round table of disgruntled Asians assembled for a CBC interview. "It seems to be that he's not well-informed," added another participant of the group, which demanded a public apology from the Liberal leader. Political rivals were also quick to attack Trudeau. "I'm not a big fan of dictatorships, I rather prefer democracies," stated New Democrat Party leader Tom Mulcair, as reported by CTV News. "I don't understand how someone can say that their favorite government is a dictatorship."

Trudeau didn't dial back his comments, insisting that poor context was to blame. "I pointed out that globally Canada is up against big countries (China, for one) that can address some major issues quickly," he tweeted.

Image was one reason Justin Trudeau cruised to victory to become Canada's 23rd Prime Minister. But he also carried an optimistic swagger and a demeanor that connected with Canadians, reassuring the masses that all was well. Those attributes were severely put to the test in 2016, several months after he assumed office when the opposition squabbled in Parliament over legislation concerning medical assistance in dying. Video documentation obtained by CBC showed Trudeau briskly leaving his seat and approaching a crowd in the middle of the House of Commons. He then grabbed opposition Conservative Whip Gord Brown and pulled him away from the huddle while elbowing New Democrat MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau in the process. Moments later, Trudeau went back into the fray to exchange words with NDP leader Thomas Mulcair while members of his party left their seats to get a better view of the altercation.

After the dust had settled, Brosseau claimed to be so traumatized by Trudeau's elbow that she wasn't able to vote on the bill. "I was elbowed in the chest by the Prime Minister," she said in the House after the incident, according to CBC. "And I had to leave. It was very overwhelming." Trudeau apologized three times for his behavior in what the media called "Elbowgate" but didn't offer an explanation for his actions. "Members rightfully expect better behavior from anyone in this House," he said, as reported by CTV News. "I expect better behavior of myself."

Justin Trudeau became the nation's first prime minister to violate conflict of interest regulations while still active as leader. In 2016, a year after becoming prime minister, Trudeau and his family took a Yuletide holiday vacation in the Bahamas, more specifically, the private island of the Aga Khan, an Ismaili spiritual leader and wealthy philanthropist. But considering that the Trudeau government gave the Aga Khan's foundation funds of nearly $50 million earlier that year, the trip raised concerns that the opulent island host facilitated the free trip to exert more political influence on the prime minister. 

Trudeau shrugged off the accusations, claiming the Aga Khan was a family friend, going all the way back to the time his father, Pierre Trudeau, ran the country. But that wasn't how Canada's Ethics Commissioner perceived the relationship, finding that the prime minister contravened four sections of the Conflict of Interest Act. However, there were no private interactions between Mr. Trudeau and the Aga Khan until Mr. Trudeau became Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada," noted the commissioner in The Trudeau Report, released in 2018. "This led me to conclude that their relationship cannot be described as one of friends for the purposes of the Act."

Trudeau, who had family members vay-cay on the Aga Khan's dime earlier in 2016, had to admit his wrongdoing. "Obviously there was a mistake," he said, according to CTV News. "Moving forward, we will be behaving differently."

It's a given that Justin Trudeau's photogenic features helped land him the prime ministerial job. So, in 2017, when it came time to select a new Governor General (Canada's figurehead representative of the British Royal Family, which at the time was Queen Elizabeth), he felt that person should have similar features. He insisted on Julie Payette, a blond, curly-haired celebrity in her own right, via her status as one of only two Canadian women astronauts to venture into space. He wanted Payette's cachet to add pizzazz to the position, replacing a not-so-flashy former law professor named David Johnston, and was willing to cut corners on the vetting process.

Payette may have had the right stuff riding in the space shuttle, but as Governor General, she toted a lot of toxic baggage. Trudeau and his selection team were even willing to turn a blind eye to Payette getting nailed in 2011 with an assault charge, which was eventually dropped. Once she became Governor General, her Rideau Hall headquarters blew up into chaos. Employees complained about Payette's behavior, from verbal abuse and threats to allegations of improper physical contact. Four years later, Payette was forced to resign. According to the National Post, Trudeau said, "Everyone deserves a safe and secure workplace, and that includes people who work hard in the Governor General's team. That is something that I take very seriously," although he refused to accept responsibility for her ill-suited appointment.

Justin Trudeau has never made any bones about his belief in equal rights for women. Speaking at the United Nations' 60th Commission on the Status of Women in 2016, he felt mystified why his position was a big deal. "Why does every time I say I'm a feminist, you know, the Twitterverse explodes, and news media pick it up?" he remarked. "It shouldn't be something that creates a reaction." Two years later, one reaction questioning Trudeau's values concerned an article dug up from 2000. The Creston Valley Advance, a community newspaper based in British Columbia, where Trudeau was teaching at the time, editorialized that he had groped one of its reporters at a local music festival. "I'm sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national newspaper, I would never have been so forward," the paper quoted Trudeau as saying. 

The story broke internationally, with outlets from CNN to the Guardian picking it up. With the #metoo movement gathering momentum at the time, the story was embarrassing for Trudeau, whose actions seemed to belie his feminist beliefs. The woman, later identified as Rose Knight, confirmed the groping incident and subsequent apology but decided against taking action. "The debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement," she said, according to CBC. For his part, Trudeau still denied he acted inappropriately. "But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently," he said, according to the National Post.

Notorious for his shallow optics, Justin Trudeau embarrassed himself in 2018 when he took his family with him to India on government business. Once they deplaned, the clan turned into an international laughing stock as they emerged wearing traditional Indian garb. What Trudeau hoped would be an homage to the host country's traditions became ridiculed as an amusing cosplay escapade. But things were about to get worse for the visiting prime minister. Before a formal function at Canada House in Mumbai was to start, it turned out that the invitation list included Jaspal Atwal, later identified as a Sikh separatist who was convicted in Canada more than 20 years earlier for trying to assassinate a visiting Indian cabinet minister. It wasn't until a reporter blindsided Trudeau about that contentious guest list entry that Trudeau was taken aback. 

The Indian media, including The Hindustan Times, blamed Trudeau's staff for approving Atwal's invitation, but the prime minister himself denied responsibility. Instead, he claimed that they withdrew the invitation once they found out about Atwal's past and blamed a Liberal politician accompanying him for adding the convicted terrorist to the list. "The member of Parliament who included this individual has, and will, assume full responsibility for his actions," he said, notes CBC. That said, the damage was already done, as Trudeau's wife, Sophie Gregoire, and a Liberal cabinet minister did a photo op with Atwal during the trip.

Justin Trudeau has long called himself an advocate of equal rights for all, even getting his government to introduce an anti-racism strategy in 2019 while campaigning for re-election. But all his speeches and policies tackling such an issue took a back seat to some damning photos of the prime minister in blackface. Two of them from 2001 featured Trudeau sporting a turban as part of an Arabian Nights-themed dance at West Point Grey Academy, a private school where the future prime minister once taught. A third blackface image displayed Trudeau singing Harry Belafonte's "Banana Boat" hit at a high school talent show, while a fourth one showed him in similar makeup while sticking out his tongue.

With Trudeau's Liberals neck-and-neck against the Conservatives in the polls, the images threatened to jeopardize the prime minister's political career. During his electoral campaign, Andrew Scheer, then Conservative party leader, jumped at the chance to dismiss Trudeau's credibility. "Wearing brownface is an act of open mockery and racism," Scheer said. "It was just as racist in 2001 as it is in 2019." There was no getting around the issue, as Trudeau was forced to repeatedly apologize for the cosmetic faux pas. "Darkening your face, regardless of the context of the circumstances, is always unacceptable because of the racist history of blackface," he responded, according to CBC. "I should have understood that then, and I never should have done it."

One scandal that could have permanently destroyed Justin Trudeau's career in 2019 involved SNC-Lavalin, a Quebec-based construction and engineering company that had previously given the Liberals more than $80,000 in campaign donations. The company approached the Trudeau government seeking ways to sidestep a trial after facing fraud charges for paying off Libyan government officials more than $45 million up to a decade earlier. When prosecutors denied a request for a deferred agreement, the government amended the Criminal Code to introduce remediation agreements, a loophole enabling SNC-Lavalin to pay a fine rather than risk being convicted.

But the situation was under the jurisdiction of Attorney General and Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a member of Trudeau's cabinet who questioned the partisan intentions of her boss. During an investigation of the SNC-Lavalin affair, she recalled being reminded of the consequences for Trudeau and his staff if his requests weren't met. "In my mind those were veiled threats and I took them as such," she said, according to the National Post. "That is entirely inappropriate." Trudeau downplayed those exchanges, with Global News reporting that he said, "Each of these interactions was a conversation among colleagues about how to tackle a challenging issue."

Eventually, Wilson-Raybould would lose her portfolios and be kicked out of the Liberal party, while the ethics commissioner would finger Trudeau for political interference. SNC-Lavalin would plead guilty to fraud, while Trudeau barely hung onto his prime minister seat with a minority government after a federal election later that year.

When COVID broke in 2020, one target group Justin Trudeau wanted to hit was Canada's youth. Without any vetting or open competitions, he got the government to enlist the services of WE Charity, a Canadian-based youth development organization, to administer the Canada Student Service Grant program for $543.5 million. Trudeau unfurled the youth strategy that summer, but the venture disintegrated within a week of his announcement after word got out about WE Charity's cushy relationship with the Trudeau family. 

An investigation revealed that Trudeau never received a penny from WE Charity. However, his wife, mother, and brother collectively raked in more than $300,000 for speaking engagements. Additionally, Finance Minister Bill Morneau was accused of conflict of interest breaches for failing to recuse himself from discussions despite having a close friendship with one WE Charity founder. He resigned in August 2020. After the ethics commissioner cleared Trudeau of any ethics breach, Trudeau was quick to respond. "At the heart of this initiative was getting support for youth during this pandemic as fast as possible," he said, per CTV News. "My job as Prime Minister is to do whatever it takes for as long as it takes by providing direct support to people and businesses to get through this." 

The opposition Conservatives weren't impressed. "Our accountability laws are broken, and we can't have more of the same corruption and cronyism from Justin Trudeau," declared party leader Erin O'Toole, per CBC.

In 2020, police raided a Toronto mansion housing an illegal casino operation owned by real estate developer Wei Wei. After he and his family were charged with operating a common gaming house, it was discovered that the accused tycoon apparently had connections to Justin Trudeau. According to the PM, Wei, who previously worked with the Chinese government to revitalize one of its run-down cities, met with Trudeau several times, on occasion as part of an organization representing his native country's communist party. In a 2016 event, Wei was seen with Trudeau in a group shot. Additionally, the Globe and Mail reported that one member from that delegation donated $200,000 to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, named after the former prime minister and Justin's father. He also plopped down another $50,000 to create a statue of the late statesman. 

Trudeau repeatedly avoided commenting on any ties he may have had to Wei or any other Asian figures with communist inclinations admid accusations that such fraternizing would raise doubts about his ability to defend Canada's national interests. "We have always followed all the rules around fundraising and will continue to," he said during the question period in the House of Commons, according to Global News," adding, "But we actually went above and beyond that in making sure all of our fundraisers are done in public spaces and we invite the media to it and publish the list of people who attend."

In March 2020, during the first wave of COVID-19, Justin Trudeau urged Canadians to undergo a self-imposed quarantine to mitigate the spread of infection. "It's up to you to do the right thing," said Trudeau in a prepared speech, Global News reported. "While many of you are staying home and limiting trips to the grocery store, too many still aren't." At the time, 130 Canadians had already died from COVID-19, and more than 11,000 had contracted the virus. But the prime minister was taken to task over failing to follow his own advice after he admitted the following month that he broke lockdown protocol when he left his Ottawa residence to visit the rest of his family in Quebec. 

"After three weeks of my family living up at Harrington, and me living here, I went to join them for Easter," he said while addressing reporters in front of his home in Ottawa, per National Post. "We continue to follow all the instructions of public health authorities." That decision didn't sit well with disgruntled Canadians, some of whom noted their displeasure by commenting on the Instagram page of Sophie Gregoire, Trudeau's wife. "Oh yeah, I remember that time you guys went to the cottage, while the rest of the country wasn't allowed to do so," grumbled one respondent. Notably, Gregoire tested positive for COVID-19 in March and was placed in isolation while the entire family was together in Ottawa.

Despite his sex appeal, Justin Trudeau frequently claimed to be a dedicated husband and father to his three children, a point confirmed by his wife, Sophie Gregoire. "I call him my prince," she said in Chatelaine, "because he treats me like a princess." But by August 2023, that idyllic vision was shattered when they announced their split. "Sophie and I would like to share the fact that after many meaningful and difficult conversations, we have made the decision to separate," wrote Trudeau on Instagram. Gregoire — who included a similar message on her account — didn't waste any time vacating the family's Ottawa residence before the announcement.

Neither provided a solid reason for wanting to end their 18-year marriage, although rumors have frequently percolated that Trudeau cheated on his wife. OSN explored one such dalliance between Trudeau and his Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly but couldn't verify their relationship was intimate. Trudeau had dismissed such allegations as far back as 2014 when the CBC broached the topic. "This is a conversation about the kinds of challenges that any real marriage goes through," he said. "Tremendous ups and downs, but as I say we are deeply in love and committed to each other and we continue to be." However, Gregoire was more opaque when tackling the same issue. "Ask if whatever happened in our lives — I'm not saying it did or didn't," she told Global News. "As if we would answer that."

In September of 2023, Deepak Vohra, previously India's ambassador to Sudan, went on record with an outrageous claim about Justin Trudeau. "When Justin Trudeau came to India for the G20 [leadership summit] this month, his plane was full of cocaine," the former diplomat told Zee News (via Daily Mail). "He did not come out of his room for two days." It was an allegation that the Canadian Prime Minister's Office emphatically denied and one that PolitiFact, a site dedicated to empirical information, dismissed due to lack of evidence. Sour grapes might have been the motive for Vohra's declaration after the Trudeau government accused India of soliciting operatives to kill an apparent Khalistani terrorist on Canadian soil. The dispute reached such an intense boil that both nations expelled their counterpart's diplomats.

Still, given the number of scandals that have damaged Trudeau's image, it was no wonder why critics were having a field day with this incident, especially one involving drugs. Trudeau legalized recreational marijuana use in Canada in 2018. However, he once boasted that before then, his father used his prime ministerial clout to erase pot charges levied against Justin's brother, Michel. Justin also admitted he smoked weed. "I have not taken other drugs, I have been in my past a very rare user of marijuana," he said to CBC in 2012. "I think five or six times in my life that I've taken a puff — it's not my thing."

Critics love to point out how much Justin Trudeau likes to hang with celebrities, from Harrison Ford to Idris Elba. So when Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy jetted to Ottawa in September 2023 to secure funding for his country's existential war effort against invading Russia, no doubt Trudeau was gobsmacked about basking in the glow of arguably the world's most high-profile leader at the moment. In the end, Zelenskyy got the better end of the deal, receiving $650 million worth of assistance. Trudeau, however, probably wished that the spotlight would have faded to black. 

The downside of the House of Commons shindig occurred after Zelenskyy's heartfelt speech when House Speaker Anthony Rota introduced 98-year-old Canadian immigrant Yaroslav Hunka, described as a "freedom fighter" who defended Ukraine during the Second World War. Hours after the final standing ovation, it turned out Hunka fought for Ukraine against the Soviet Union as part of the Nazi Waffen-SS Galicia Division. Apparently, Rota invited Hunka on his own accord, skipping the vetting process.

"All of us who were in the House on Friday regret deeply having stood and clapped, even though we did so unaware of the context," said an embarrassed Trudeau over the controversy that resulted in Rota's resignation, as reported by AP. Trudeau declined to take responsibility for the fiasco, a point his opposition jumped on. "Mr. Trudeau must personally apologize and avoid passing the blame to others as he always does," argued Conservative leader Pierre Polievre, according to the Economic Times.