Trudeau has boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct

http://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trudeau-zero-tolerance-1.4723664

Trudeau has boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct: Robyn Urback

An 18-year-old allegation against Trudeau, originally printed in a community paper, resurfaced this month

Robyn Urback · CBC News · Posted: Jun 27, 2018 4:00 AM ET

4431 Comments 
Commenting is now closed for this story.

 
Entire Thread went ""POOF" (After it had been much disputed all day)
Glen Acanthus

Donald Trump makes a remark about "grabbing" and the left lose their minds. Trudeau does the grabbing and the left defend him tooth and nail. What a joke..

Richard Sharp

@John Smith

But, John, boy, there is zero proof that Trudeau did anything wrong 18 years ago. The PM of Canada says he has no recollection of any bad stuff.

I believe him, not the muckrakers.

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David Amos

@Glen Acanthus Methinks that you are enjoying the circus as much as I N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Barry Renyar "Is there a david mccaig and richard sharp spam generator in operation from Liberal headquarters?"

YUP

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David Amos

@Richard Sharp "The PM of Canada says he has no recollection of any bad stuff. "

Therein lies the rub. CBC say he said this as well

"Trudeau has said as much in various interviews about his approach to tackling sexual harassment. "We have no tolerance for this — we will not brush things under the rug, but we will take action on it immediately," he told The Canadian Press earlier this year. In a CBC Radio interview around the same time, the prime minister said he should be held to high standards of conduct, adding: "I've been very, very careful all my life to be thoughtful, to be respectful of people's space and people's headspace as well."

All the so called "muckrakers" have to do now is provide the proof which CBC admits has already been done. Furthermore many people knew this gossip has been floating around for a while. Now that CBC finally admitted that it knows of this issue as well there is a huge spotlight on your hero.

Trudeau The Younger truly has boxed himself in just as the title of the article proclaims and the text explains. Methinks he has already been caught in an up to date LIE about something he could not have easily have admitted to and apologized for because of his actions against others.

Methinks many folks commenting in these threads today would agree that what the Prime Minister told the right wing spin doctors in the National Post was a REALLY BIG Faux Pas N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Douglas Drouin Methinks you are beginning to understand that this is a circus N'esy Pas?

 
George Jones

Hopefully this is what makes him leave. He is simply not fit for the position he holds.

Richard Sharp

@George Jones

Trudeau is the best PM we've had since Martin, that much is self-evident.

Bort Smith

@George Jones Or his Cabinet can force him to resign.

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David Amos

@Bort Smith Methinks "peoplekind" are very kind they will never abandon Trudeau The Younger in his hour of need N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Richard Sharp Methinks thou doth jest too much N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Richard Sharp "Trudeau is the best PM we've had since Martin, that much is self-evident."

Methinks thou doth jest too much but your liberal cohorts and their CBC minions never do. Every time a comment of mine is disabled I feel honoured However its not fair that our fellow citizens cannot enjoy my stress testing of your ethics Hence I must blog and tweet my words N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Richard Sharp Who is blocked more you or I?

Survey Says???

 
Rob Johnston

A hypocritical man standing in the lunacy he helped build. The left will eat itself eventually starting at the extreme end.

Richard Donald

@Richard Sharp Yep Harper looked at a dancing girl's buttocks when she was shaking them. Pretty much the same as grabbing them??

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David Amos

@Richard Donald Methinks you are replying to a ghost of a comment that once was. Now the rest of us can only guess at what Mr Sharp posted that cause you to respond N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Richard Donald "Yep Harper looked at a dancing girl's buttocks when she was shaking them"

Methinks i should fess up and admit that I am guilty of that bigtime many times over many years but I swear the ladies always wanted me to look I bet a lot of guys are as guilty as Harper and I N'esy Pas?

 
William Ben

Wow Trudeau may fall on his own PC sword and superhero moral ground of trial by social media, it is so true you reap what you sow, Justin welcome to your world you helped to create and the amnesia claim ain’t going to cut it, do the hard and right thing and live up to the high moral standard you created and resign today.

Giselle Perdue

@William Ben That would really hurt and Justin's so sensible and sensitive.

David Amos

@Giselle Perdue Methinks Trudeau the Younger was really"sensitive" when here turned around with a sensible smirk after the young lady in the Red Serge collapsed behind him during one of his long moronic speeches about how much he truly cares N'esy Pas?

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/rcmp-cadets-faint-trudeau-announcement-1.4569753

Pam Sutton

He only apologized after he found out she was a journalist.

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David Amos

@Pam Sutton "He only apologized after he found out she was a journalist."

Methinks that was profoundly dumb excuse. He sounds kinda like the dude who was charged with statutory rape whose excuse was that he would not have done it if he never it was a statue. Most folks are betting that our PM's IQ hasn't climbed any higher since then and his latest pre conceived explanation created by his puppet masters supports that reasoning N'esy Pas?

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David Amos

@Pam Sutton Methinks every time CBC disables a comment of mine I should feel honoured However it is not fair that you could not enjoy it N'esy Pas?

David Amos

@Pam Sutton "He only apologized after he found out she was a journalist"

The only response I may be allowed is DUHHH???

 

  
Jason Martin

Trudeau may have created this mess for himself, but this is an issue that has the potential to affect all men.
Because now if a man is accused of sexual impropriety he is immediately labelled a pariah. Life and career ruined.
As men we've all met women we can call a drama queen. It's the drama queens we have to worry about.

Richard Sharp

@Jason Martin

That the "victim" isn't willing to add to the trash talking, and this piece CAN"T EVEN IDENTIFY WHO WROTE IT, OR WHEN, tells me the standards of journalism have dropped off a wee bit.

David Amos

@Richard Sharp "That the "victim" isn't willing to add to the trash talking, and this piece CAN"T EVEN IDENTIFY WHO WROTE IT, OR WHEN,"

Patience is a virtue CBC says in brackets above

(CBC News continues to investigate the claim

In the "Mean" time imagine if your hero's puppet masters had allowed Trudeau the Younger to speak on this issue off the top of his head like he did years ago to the young journalist. Methinks that would have caused quite a circus N'esy Pas?

 
William Ben

Those PC swords are extremely sharp you can easily cut yourself on one can’t you Justin.

David Amos

@William Ben LOL

 
Dayton Funk

I'm curious why this story is let out now by the CBC after the parliament is closed for the summer. It was in the other feeds a month ago.

David Amos

@Dayton Funk Methinks as everybody heads off on summer vacations etc most folks won't even become aware of the story and the ones that are will have forgotten it in a few months.. I suspect that by the time Parliament begins again in the fall for its last kick at the can before the next election this issue will be forgotten by the Crown Corp media as well N'esy Pas?

 
Michael Flinn

Well written - and even better - true.

David Amos

@Michael Flinn I concur

 
Peter Boone

Was this back in the day when Papa used to make all the charges against his boys magically disappear.

David Amos

@Peter Boone YUP

Trudeau has boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy on sexual misconduct: Robyn Urback

An 18-year-old allegation against Trudeau, originally printed in a community paper, resurfaced this month

Robyn Urback · CBC News · Posted: Jun 27, 2018 4:00 AM ET

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has made clear, over and over again, that there is no time limit on defending women's rights or for standing up for what is right. (Justin Tang/Canadian Press)



If the climate in Canada were different, an 18-year-old allegation of sexual misconduct against Prime Minister Justin Trudeau would be swiftly addressed, then probably dismissed.

The allegation originally appeared in an August 2000 edition of the Creston Valley Advance, a small community newspaper in B.C. The editorial, which resurfaced earlier this month, claimed that the then-28-year-old Trudeau "groped" a young reporter at a music festival, noting that he only apologized when he learned that she worked for a newspaper.

If there was no merit to the allegation, in this hypothetical alternative climate, the Prime Minister's Office could simply say so.

If there was merit to the allegation — again, theoretically speaking — Trudeau could concede that he had indeed behaved unacceptably, and remind us that he has since devoted his life to defending the integrity of all Canadians, but especially women.

Again, only if the climate in Canada were different.

In reality, neither of these options is available to Trudeau.

Cannot recall 'negative interactions'

If the allegation is false (CBC News continues to investigate the claim) Trudeau doesn't really have the option, from a political perspective, to say so.

In the current climate, denying the claim is akin to saying, "She's lying," which is a taboo phrase for the leader of a government that has made believing women central to its approach to sexual misconduct allegations.

If the allegation is true, on the other hand, Trudeau can't simply explain, apologize and attempt to move on. It would look like he afforded himself leniency that he'd denied to members of his caucus who were accused of misconduct.

So the prime minister is stuck: he can't confirm or deny. As a result, his office opted for the most unsatisfactory of all possible responses, telling the National Post that Trudeau does not recall any "negative interactions" in Creston during that time. In other words, Canada's highest-profile women's rights advocate has been stricken by a convenient bout of amnesia.

• Trudeau says zero tolerance on sexual misconduct applies to him as well
• PM says sexual harassment is a 'systemic problem'

There is room to distinguish this allegation from some of the others that have plagued Ottawa over the past couple of years. The claim is from nearly two decades ago, long before Trudeau entered politics, and without the power imbalance we sometimes see in cases where prominent men abuse their authority. For those reasons, some will surely argue that Trudeau is being unfairly railroaded by a movement that lacks necessary nuance.

And indeed, there would be ample sympathy for this notion, had Trudeau not helped to create the very climate to which he is now vulnerable.

In 2014, he suspended two MPs from the Liberal caucus after allegations surfaced about sexual misconduct. Trudeau publicly named the two — Scott Andrews and Massimo Pacetti — before actually informing them of the allegations against them. A subsequent independent investigation concluded there was merit to the complaints, though they were of two decidedly different natures: Andrews was accused of harassing behaviour, unwelcome groping and grinding, while Pacetti was accused of sex without "explicit" consent.

There are different contexts, implications and considerations when it comes to what these different claims mean, but the Liberal machine nevertheless lumped them together, forcing the pair to share headlines, a hired investigator, and an announcement of their expulsion. Andrews eventually accepted the findings of the review, saying he's since learned how his "jovial Newfoundland friendliness can be perceived," but Pacetti has always maintained his innocence. That important distinction is often overlooked.

Alberta MP Kent Hehr is out of the federal cabinet permanently following an investigation into his conduct with women. (Fred Chartrand/Canadian Press)

More recently, Kent Hehr, once the minister for sports and persons with disabilities, stepped down from cabinet, initially temporarily, in response to allegations that he made sexually suggestive and other unwelcome comments to a woman in an elevator, and touched a woman inappropriately at an event.

Though the subsequent independent investigation found the touch was involuntary (Hehr is a quadriplegic and has limited feeling in and control of his limbs), Hehr conceded that his comments were inappropriate, even though he says he cannot remember the interaction. In any case, Hehr will not return to cabinet.

Interestingly, Hehr managed to maintain his cabinet position up to that point, despite reportedly telling thalidomide survivors that "everyone in Canada has a sob story," and dismissing a Calgary mother's "loaded question" about why the government was denying maternity benefits to sick mothers, saying it was akin to "the old question … 'When did you stop beating your wife?'"

Perhaps it was simply the weight of all of the allegations that made keeping Hehr in cabinet untenable by the time the sexual misconduct claims landed, but the implication is that while there is some tolerance for cabinet members in terms of disparaging the disabled community, there is zero tolerance for harassing women.

The National

Trudeau: Misconduct standards apply to me, too

00:00 03:44

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says the zero-tolerance standards on misconduct toward women applies to him, too, in an exclusive interview with CBC News. Trudeau says women who come forward with allegations of misconduct and sexual harassment should be supported 3:44

Trudeau has said as much in various interviews about his approach to tackling sexual harassment. "We have no tolerance for this — we will not brush things under the rug, but we will take action on it immediately," he told The Canadian Press earlier this year. In a CBC Radio interview around the same time, the prime minister said he should be held to high standards of conduct, adding: "I've been very, very careful all my life to be thoughtful, to be respectful of people's space and people's headspace as well."

In his many interviews on the topic, he has not included an appeal for allowances for youthfulness or genuine remorse, or simply the acknowledgement that people sometimes do bad things. This is not to suggest that any combination of these factors should necessarily exonerate the aforementioned men. I only mean to point out that the excuses that some have already used to defend the prime minister against this one accusation (This was almost 20 years ago!) haven't actually crossed his lips.

Trudeau has essentially boxed himself in with his own zero-tolerance policy. He has made clear, over and over again, that there is no time limit on defending women's rights or for standing up for what is right. This is the climate that Trudeau helped create. He can't forget that now.

This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ.

About the Author

Robyn Urback

Columnist

Robyn Urback is an opinion columnist with CBC News and a producer with the CBC's Opinion section. She previously worked as a columnist and editorial board member at the National Post. Follow her on Twitter at:

• @RobynUrback