EDITORIAL: Tripping over a low ethical bar

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What’s troubling about the ethics breach by International Trade Minister Mary Ng is not the amount of money involved. She was found by federal ethics commissioner Mario Dion to have broken the rules in awarding two small contracts to a close friend.

Ng told the House of Commons Tuesday that she takes “full responsibility” for the breach and apologized. No, what’s most worrying about this incident is that it’s yet another example of the Liberal government being found to have broken the rules — and getting away with it.

What chance was there that Ng would take real responsibility and resign when her boss has set the example that there’s no need for accountability?

In 2017, then-ethics commissioner Mary Dawson ruled Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has broken the rules by accepting flights, gifts and a vacation to the private island of the Aga Khan. While Dawson said Trudeau did not have a close personal relationship with the Aga Khan, the trip was problematic because the Aga Khan Foundation, which is a registered lobby group, received more than $50 million in federal funding in 2016. In 2019, Trudeau was criticized by Dion over his role in the SNC/Lavalin scandal.

In both cases, we got a shrug, a half-hearted apology and a pledge to do better, which this government seems incapable of doing.

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What’s the point of having a federal ethics watchdog if there are no consequences to his or her rulings? The Trudeau government has a litany of questionable behaviour. They’ve been called onto the carpet time and again. Yet those found to have broken the rules remain in office.

Once upon a time, ministers took responsibility not just for their own actions, but for the actions of the people who worked for them. Not any more.

Trudeau has lowered the ethical bar to the point where he and his ministers keep tripping on it. Rules have become mere voluntary guidelines.

If no one resigns and no one pays the price for bad behaviour, we’re making a mockery of ethics probes and reports. It’s a free-for-all, where anything goes and principles go out the door. Cabinet ministers are supposed to uphold the highest levels of political morality, yet Trudeau’s government flouts the rules with impunity.