Ottawa, ON – Michael Barrett, Conservative Shadow Minister for Ethics and Accountable Government, released the following statement calling on the Liberal-NDP coalition and Bloc to stop covering up the investigation into Justin Trudeau’s free $84,000 vacation:

“After eight years of Justin Trudeau, life has never been more difficult for Canadians. Yet, during a time when people are having to choose between putting food on the table and heating their homes, Justin Trudeau decided to accept an $84,000 vacation at a luxury resort in Jamaica from his close friend, raising major red flags under Canada’s ethics laws. 

“Since then, Trudeau has offered three different responses in two weeks about one vacation. After Trudeau first told reporters that he was paying for this vacation, the Prime Minister was forced to admit that he ‘stayed at no cost at a location owned by a friend.’ Then, six days later, Trudeau changed his story again, saying that he was ‘staying with family friends at no cost.’ Trudeau also claimed that the Ethics Commissioner ‘pre-approved’ his free luxury vacation, but now the Ethics Commissioner’s office said they do not perform that function. Canadians deserve to have transparency over what the Prime Minister told the Ethics Commissioner.

“Instead of working with common sense Conservatives to give Canadians the answers they deserve, the Liberal-NDP coalition and the Bloc are covering up for this ethically challenged Prime Minister. Today, at the Standing Committee on Access to Information, Privacy and Ethics, they rejected the Conservative motion to release all correspondence that Trudeau sent the Ethics Commissioner about his exclusive winter vacation.

“Enough is enough. The NDP and the Bloc must stop covering for Trudeau so that Canadians can get to the bottom of this issue. Despite this, Conservatives did manage to successfully call upon the Ethics Commissioner to testify as to whether he was also the victim of the same deception that Trudeau offered Canadians.

“It’s clear that if the Prime Minister had nothing to hide, he would’ve released the documents already. Only common sense Conservatives will bring home accountability to Ottawa.”