OTTAWA — The parent of Canada’s biggest container-terminal operator has replaced its CEO, Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem, after revelations of his close friendship with sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.

DP World Canada is slated to run the terminal at Contrecoeur, Que., part of a massive expansion of the Port of Montreal that’s one of the first to be shepherded by the federal government’s new Major Projects Office.

The company, a subsidiary of Dubai-based DP World, already runs two of the four container terminals at the Port of Vancouver, and the container terminals in Prince Rupert and Nanaimo, B.C., and Saint John, N.B., meaning it handles many billions of dollars worth of Canadian trade every year.

Bin Sulayem’s resignation, following a new release of Epstein’s messages and files by the U.S. Department of Justice, likely saves headaches for Canada’s leaders; with the Contrecoeur project, DP World is soon to become even more important to Canadian trade.

Contrecoeur “will increase the capacity of Montreal Port by 60 per cent—six-zero percent—helping Quebec and Canada realize the full potential of our trade agreements and new export markets,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said at the end of a first ministers’ meeting in late January, boasting about it as an example of his get-things-built mantra being put into practice.

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, long an investment partner in DP World projects, said earlier this week that it was pausing further deals over bin Sulayem’s Epstein ties.

Federal politicians were more circumspect. Before bin Sulayem quit, The Logic asked the Prime Minister’s Office whether Carney had any concerns about DP World’s deep involvement in a key Canadian sector. Carney’s office delegated a response to Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon.

“We are monitoring the reports that you referenced and will continue to evaluate any additional information as it becomes available,” MacKinnon’s spokesperson Marie-Justine Torres wrote in a statement, the rest of which was about how important the Contrecoeur project is.

She didn’t respond by deadline when asked whether MacKinnon wanted to add anything in light of bin Sulayem’s resignation. Nor did the Caisse reply to a question about whether it will resume its relationship with DP World.

Bin Sulayem has been an extremely prominent Dubai business leader in multiple sectors, including real estate and private equity. He is not, however, Emirati royalty—“Sultan” is his first name, not a title.

Nothing in the files directly implicates bin Sulayem in Epstein’s alleged sex ring. The material does, however, reveal an intimate friendship that ranged from ordinary-seeming business dealings to bin Sulayem seeking Epstein’s help getting medical treatment for a daughter and recommending a particular sex-massage service in Tokyo.

“I loved the torture video,” Epstein wrote to bin Sulayem in one April 2009 email, without further explanation. (All quotations in this story from the U.S. releases are as the text appears in the documents. Many passages are garbled.) There’s no indication of what “torture” referred to, nor firm evidence that bin Sulayem even sent Epstein whatever video he was writing about.

The Department of Justice redacted the name of that email’s recipient in the public release, but U.S. legislators who saw the original identified the person as bin Sulayem.

At the time, Epstein was technically serving time in Florida for soliciting a minor for sex, but was let out for 12 hours every day on a work release arrangement.

The friendship went on for many years. Epstein and bin Sulayem traded dirty jokes and discussed what the Quran says about friendships between Muslims and Jews.

“All I know for sure, is that you are one of my most trusted friends in very sense of the word,” Epstein wrote to bin Sulayem in that exchange.

“Thank you my friend I am off the sample a fresh 100% female Russian at my yacht,” bin Sulayem replied.

In April 2013, bin Sulayem reported to Epstein that he’d been invited to a lunch with then-Prince Andrew in Britain. “Greatv,” Epstein replied. The prince has since been effectively expelled from the Royal Family over his Epstein ties.

That July, Epstein introduced bin Sulayem by email to Joi Ito, the Japanese entrepreneur and investor who would later resign from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology over his Epstein ties. Epstein told bin Sulayam that Ito was “one of us” and said Ito would be in Dubai later that year.

“Glad to be on the Epstein team with you. ;-)” Ito replied to them both.

Bin Sulayem said it would be great to get together: “It would be my pleasure to meet you in Dubai always very happy to meet any one from the Epstein club!”

In an August 2015 text exchange, bin Sulayem arranged to visit Epstein with his wife, three children and a nanny, but dropping what appears to have been a link to a porn site in the middle of it. The next month, he was raving to Epstein about his sexual relationship with a student at a Dubai university.

Bin Sulayem even told Epstein about a trip to Canada in June 2016, which included visits to Prince Rupert and Saint John.

“I am T=avelling with my Irish girlfriend i have also Hadi and my COOK becaus= I will be meeting the chiefs of First Nation (Canadian Indian tribe) where=they will cook for me and i need to cook for them and once we eat together w= become friends and will facilitate my company to use their lands for=my port operations in prince Rupert Canada I will also travel to St. John New Brunswick east coast of Canada,” he wrote.

An expansion of DP World’s Fairview container terminal in Prince Rupert was completed in 2022.

Until very recently, Canada was actively courting bin Sulayem’s favour. Trade Minister Maninder Sidhu met bin Sulayem in January during a trade mission to the UAE, which included meetings on Emirati investments in Canadian infrastructure.

Following the new revelations, The Logic asked about the meeting and whether Sidhu planned to review bin Sulayem’s suitability for such extensive involvement in Canada’s ports.

“The allegations against Mr. bin Sulayem are of the utmost seriousness and the minister was not aware of them at the time of the meeting,” his spokesperson Erin Quevillon said by email, before bin Sulayam’s resignation. “Canada has strong frameworks in place to ensure that companies operating here do so transparently and in accordance with Canadian law.”

With files from Joanna Smith