Gerald Butts attacks Boris Johnson staffer for breaking lockdown rules that Trudeau broke twice

Justin Trudeau's former top advisor Gerald Butts has castigated Boris Johnson's senior advisor for breaking lockdown rules to visit his family home—something Justin Trudeau has done twice since the lockdown began.

Dominic Cummings, who serves as British PM's Boris Johnson's senior advisor, has been accused of breaking lockdown laws to travel to his parents farm in County Durham, which is some 5 hours away from London by car.

Cummings told reporters today that he took this trip so that his parents could look after his young child while he and his wife were sick with coronavirus.

In response to this, Butts called on Cummings to resign from the British government, saying rather sanctimoniously that Cummings "confirmed that he did everything the press accused him of doing, but he’s staying at No 10 anyway. Novel approach."

What Butts failed to criticize, however, is that his loyal friend, former boss, and prime minister, Justin Trudeau, took two trips out of the province to visit his cottage in Quebec.

Unlike Cummings, Trudeau did not take this trip out of necessity, but for pleasure.

His first Easter weekend vacation to Harrington caused outrage as it confirmed for many that there's one set of rules for the prime minister and another for ordinary Canadians. It even led to Trudeau being mocked on Fox News' Tucker Carlson tonight.

Trudeau's cottage getaway involves crossing the provincial border of Quebec and Ontario, a trip that has been strongly discouraged by provincial premiers. Police have been set up at the border to bar entry in either direction. Ordinary Canadians are being regularly turned away.

Butts has been a controversial figure in Canadian politics after his involvement in the SNC-Lavalin scandal—an episode that nearly brought down the Trudeau government.  

Butts resigned as Trudeau’s principal secretary in February, after revelations that he orchestrated and participated in attempts to pressure former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to go easy on SNC-Lavalin.

SNC-Lavalin is the Quebec-based construction firm, whose activity in Libya between 2001 and 2011 is the subject of bribery and corruption charges.

Butts, then-Privy Council Clerk Michael Wernick, Trudeau, and Finance Minister Bill Morneau were among the cast of a failed attempt to have Wilson-Raybould divert the case to a remediation deal.