Tuesday July 10, 2018
Editorial Cartoon by Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator – Tuesday July 10, 2018
‘I am confident that I did not act inappropriately,’ Trudeau says of groping allegation
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau cited his history of working on “issues around sexual assault” today in his clearest denial to date of groping allegations made against him linked to an event that happened nearly two decades ago.
November 8, 2014
“Obviously this is a situation that has been very much on my mind over the past few weeks. It’s a issue that I have been deeply engaged with, not just as a leader, but all my life, since my early 20s in university … active on issues around sexual assault and behaviours,” Trudeau told reporters in Toronto.
“I’ve been reflecting very carefully on what I remember from that incident almost 20 years ago and again, I am … I feel I am confident that I did not act inappropriately.”
The incident is alleged to have taken place in 2000, when Trudeau was 28, at the Kokanee Summit in Creston, B.C. The event was raising money for the Avalanche Foundation, a charity Trudeau became involved with after his brother, Michel, died in an avalanche in 1998.
“I am not going to speak for the woman in question. I would never presume to speak for her. But I know that there is an awful lot of reflection to be had as we move forward as a society on how people perceive different interactions.”
Earlier this year, CBC News communicated by phone and email with the woman who was the subject of the editorial. She said she was not interested in being associated with any further coverage of the story. She also asked that her name not be used and that she not be contacted about the story again.
October 8, 2003
A former co-worker remembers the reporter’s account of the encounter. Valerie Bourne was the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance at the time and said the reporter was “distressed” by her contact with Trudeau.
“My recollections of the conversation were that she came to me because she was unsettled by it. She didn’t like what had happened,” said Bourne. “She wasn’t sure how she should proceed with it because, of course, we’re talking somebody who was known to the Canadian community.”
Trudeau sidestepped a question about whether he would order an independent investigation of the matter, as he did when MPs in his caucus and party staffers were accused of inappropriate behaviour. (Continued: CBC)
