Cohen: It'll take more than the Conservatives to sully the Aga Khan's stellar reputation
Since January, we have been talking about Justin Trudeau and his
tropical holiday with the Aga Khan. As June approaches, we are still
talking about it. Sad.
Trudeau says he will recuse himself from the appointment of the new ethics commissioner, who, lucky duck, will inherit the two investigations initiated by the departing Mary Dawson. We are left in suspense. Cruel.
Did the prime minister break the rules in taking a free ride on a helicopter to the Aga Khan’s Bahamian island? Was it unethical to accept a few days in the sun with him?
As the waters rise or recede in sodden communities, the opposition chooses new leaders and hackers wage cyber-warfare on our institutions, this is what matters to us: the prime minister’s winter vacation. Odd.
It goes on and on, critics crying scandal, as if this were Donald Trump firing James Comey. It is classic Canada: earnest, aggrieved, jealous and prissy, finding grave impropriety in personal misjudgment. Our accountants of envy are on the march, again.
The parade’s new grand marshal is John Baird, former minister of foreign affairs. Worried about the reputation of the Aga Khan, whom he reveres, he warns that it would be “a perilous mistake to conflate this important partnership and this great man … with the excesses of the élite.”
In a recent commentary in The National Post, he gets up on his low horse to declare with Olympian certainty: “It is unforgivable that the irresponsible decisions of one individual could threaten to tarnish an exceptional leader’s lifetime of global statesmanship.”
Good for Baird for saluting the Aga Khan, a unique philanthropist and humanitarian. Baird does not mention Justin Trudeau; he prefers, archly, to call him “one individual.” Now an elder statesman, the brash Baird is more subtle.
But when this story broke last January, it was the Conservatives – Baird’s former colleagues – who treated the Aga Khan with the ignominy with which Baird treats Trudeau. Delighted to beat up the prime minister, it was they, not Trudeau, who “tarnished” the Aga Khan.
It was less what they said than what they didn’t. To Andrew Scheer, inquisitor-in-chief, the Aga Khan is “the beneficiary of tens of millions in government contributions” and received $30 million for his headquarters in Ottawa.
“We need to know if it is appropriate for Trudeau to accept gifts from someone whose foundation receives funds from the Government of Canada,” he harrumphed in a letter on Jan. 8.
To Scheer, who soils himself to be party leader, the Aga Khan is “a private individual.”
Someone? Private individual? Beneficiary? Can we recognize in anything Sheer says even a hint of Baird’s veneration of “no one alive today I respect more or hold in higher esteem.”
It was convenient for Sheer to paint the Aga Khan as anonymous, even faintly grubby or shady. Yet it was the Conservatives who made the Aga Khan an honorary citizen and invited him to address Parliament, signal accolades both.
Baird’s Aga Khan was behind “the multi-million-dollar rehabilitation” of the former war museum and Dominion Archives, which re-opened this week as the Aga Khan’s Global Centre for Pluralism. He founded the Aga Khan "Museum" (Tolerance Mosque) in Toronto.
To Baird, the Aga Khan is a giver. To Scheer, he is a taker.
Both know the truth about this: Justin Trudeau and his brood took a holiday with an old family friend Trudeau admires as much as Baird does. Trudeau, zealous about his privacy, should have disclosed his plans and the government should have paid his way, where necessary, for his security. He has since reimbursed part of the costs.
More important, Trudeau and Canada should celebrate at every turn his and our relationship with His Highness the Aga Khan. Only good things come of it at home and abroad. No one seriously believes he wanted anything from Justin Trudeau – except, perhaps, another suggestion on how he can enrich and elevate our little country.
Trudeau says he will recuse himself from the appointment of the new ethics commissioner, who, lucky duck, will inherit the two investigations initiated by the departing Mary Dawson. We are left in suspense. Cruel.
Did the prime minister break the rules in taking a free ride on a helicopter to the Aga Khan’s Bahamian island? Was it unethical to accept a few days in the sun with him?
As the waters rise or recede in sodden communities, the opposition chooses new leaders and hackers wage cyber-warfare on our institutions, this is what matters to us: the prime minister’s winter vacation. Odd.
It goes on and on, critics crying scandal, as if this were Donald Trump firing James Comey. It is classic Canada: earnest, aggrieved, jealous and prissy, finding grave impropriety in personal misjudgment. Our accountants of envy are on the march, again.
The parade’s new grand marshal is John Baird, former minister of foreign affairs. Worried about the reputation of the Aga Khan, whom he reveres, he warns that it would be “a perilous mistake to conflate this important partnership and this great man … with the excesses of the élite.”
In a recent commentary in The National Post, he gets up on his low horse to declare with Olympian certainty: “It is unforgivable that the irresponsible decisions of one individual could threaten to tarnish an exceptional leader’s lifetime of global statesmanship.”
Good for Baird for saluting the Aga Khan, a unique philanthropist and humanitarian. Baird does not mention Justin Trudeau; he prefers, archly, to call him “one individual.” Now an elder statesman, the brash Baird is more subtle.
But when this story broke last January, it was the Conservatives – Baird’s former colleagues – who treated the Aga Khan with the ignominy with which Baird treats Trudeau. Delighted to beat up the prime minister, it was they, not Trudeau, who “tarnished” the Aga Khan.
It was less what they said than what they didn’t. To Andrew Scheer, inquisitor-in-chief, the Aga Khan is “the beneficiary of tens of millions in government contributions” and received $30 million for his headquarters in Ottawa.
“We need to know if it is appropriate for Trudeau to accept gifts from someone whose foundation receives funds from the Government of Canada,” he harrumphed in a letter on Jan. 8.
To Scheer, who soils himself to be party leader, the Aga Khan is “a private individual.”
Someone? Private individual? Beneficiary? Can we recognize in anything Sheer says even a hint of Baird’s veneration of “no one alive today I respect more or hold in higher esteem.”
It was convenient for Sheer to paint the Aga Khan as anonymous, even faintly grubby or shady. Yet it was the Conservatives who made the Aga Khan an honorary citizen and invited him to address Parliament, signal accolades both.
Baird’s Aga Khan was behind “the multi-million-dollar rehabilitation” of the former war museum and Dominion Archives, which re-opened this week as the Aga Khan’s Global Centre for Pluralism. He founded the Aga Khan "Museum" (Tolerance Mosque) in Toronto.
To Baird, the Aga Khan is a giver. To Scheer, he is a taker.
Both know the truth about this: Justin Trudeau and his brood took a holiday with an old family friend Trudeau admires as much as Baird does. Trudeau, zealous about his privacy, should have disclosed his plans and the government should have paid his way, where necessary, for his security. He has since reimbursed part of the costs.
More important, Trudeau and Canada should celebrate at every turn his and our relationship with His Highness the Aga Khan. Only good things come of it at home and abroad. No one seriously believes he wanted anything from Justin Trudeau – except, perhaps, another suggestion on how he can enrich and elevate our little country.
============
John Baird: The noble work of the Aga Khan should not be tarnished by this Canadian political scandal
Prakash Singh / AFP / Getty ImagesThe Aga Khan smiles during a meeting, May 12, 2008
His Highness the Aga Khan is a remarkable human being and a force for pluralism in a world besieged by tyranny. At 80 years of age, he is now the longest living spiritual leader in the Islamic world, and a jewel for Canada as our own honourary citizen. His statesmanship has shaped the course of history — in the midst of the Cold War, he bridged Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev in Geneva in his relentless pursuit for peace.
A lot of attention and media has recently been concentrated on the Aga Khan. Let me tell you about the Aga Khan I have come to know, who I have come to deeply respect and admire, and who continues to be a powerful and irreplaceable force for good in a dangerous world.
Under the previous government, Canada invested in crucial development programming across the world that materially impacted the lives of the most imperiled. From Africa to the Middle East and Asia, the Aga Khan Development Network (AKDN) is a shining model. International aid agencies the world over aspire to achieve the effectiveness of the AKDN’s initiatives.
The Government of Canada and Aga Khan Foundation Canada have jointly funded initiatives that have improved the quality of life of well over a million people in some of the most marginalized places in the world over the last decade — helping people with jobs and income, spurring entrepreneurship, improving health care and education even in some of the world’s most remote locations. In East Africa alone, over 300,000 children are benefiting from improved education, and a new hospital in central Afghanistan will serve a population of 400,000, most of whom are women and children. The AKDN pioneers new and powerful ways to creating lasting change, paralleled perhaps only by the Gates Foundation.
This has not been a one-way street. Across Canada, the Aga Khan’s public parks and centres add to the rich tapestry of our national life.
In partnership with Canada’s Global Centre for Pluralism, His Highness has funded the multi-million-dollar rehabilitation of one of the capital’s critical heritage buildings, the former War Museum and Dominion Archives in Ottawa, saving it from disrepair and giving it a new global vocation.
The cultural complex and architectural treasure in Toronto that includes the establishment of the Aga Khan Museum, Ismaili Centre, and Aga Khan Park is another contribution. The construction of this world-class site provided 1.5 million hours of construction work during an economic downturn, engaging over a 100 subcontractors and dozens of Canadian suppliers. The opening of the museum was itself covered in media across over 50 countries and became Lonely Planet’s top reason to visit Toronto.
An ongoing demonstration of the remarkable symmetry between Canada and the Aga Khan was consecrated by prime minister Stephen Harper and the Aga Khan in the Canada-Ismaili Imamat Protocol of Understanding prior to the Aga Khan’s remarkable address in Parliament. The protocol shapes diplomatic, development and other joint ventures between Canada and the Ismaili Imamat around the world.
It would be a perilous mistake to conflate this important partnership and this great man, one that continues make a meaningful difference, with the excesses of the elite. Prime ministers and senior representatives are often afforded generous gestures; the responsibility to decline them politely rests on the public office holder.
The Aga Khan embodies Canadian values. There is no one alive today who I respect more or hold in higher esteem. His counsel during my tenure as foreign minister provided rare perspectives that can only be accrued by a man of his stature, having witnessed the world for as long as he has. It is unforgivable that the irresponsible decisions of one individual could threaten to tarnish an exceptional leader’s lifetime of global statesmanship.
Hon. John R. Baird, P.C., a senior adviser at Bennett Jones LLP, is a former minister of foreign affairs.
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WOW!~ It must be confusing and disturbing to the Ismaeli's ASSASSINS-CHIEF as he takes his much-needed Bahamian vacations away from his blood-soaked throne of human skulls atop Mount Alamut, to read in your liberal rags about exactly how much he is now being "disrespected" in Canada, after had we conned him into thinking we were his friends by Submitting our former War Museum building and lands in downtown Ottawa to him, at our gullible taxpayers' expense, for his new "Diversity Centre," after we had already given him a multi-million dollar"Tolerance Mosque" in Toronto.
Because nothing screams "Tolerance and Diversity!" like hosting the muslim Assassin's sect here, no?
;-)
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