So is Justin Trudeau going to be held to the same standard that he sets for everyone else? That is the essence of my latest column for the Toronto Sun as the PM faces groping allegations.
“The standard applies to everyone,” Justin Trudeau said in February.
He was speaking about dealing with claims of sexual harassment and assault by members of Parliament. He was asked specifically if the same rules applied to him and he said yes.
As you’ve heard by now, Trudeau is accused of groping a young reporter in Creston, British Columbia back in 2000. Liberal pundit Warren Kinsella was one of the first to post on this by simply putting up the original article without comment.
My Sun colleague Mark Bonokoski jumped on that and got the PM’s press office to say there was nothing to see here, the PM doesn’t remember any “negative interactions.” Not a great denial from the PMO, then again, they have to go against words their boss said 18 years ago that he wouldn’t have been so forward if he knew the woman was reporting for a national newspaper.
This story has since been picked up all over the place. Buzzfeed, New York Times, Daily Beast. To name a few. Not by many in the Canadian media though.
Trudeau set the standard.
Now as I make clear in the column, Trudeau says it should not matter how old the accusations are or who they are against. He claims the same standard should apply to all.
Where did he make those comments?
To CBC, the state broadcaster, in an interview with reporter and host Chris Hall for the radio show, The House.
It will be interesting to see if CBC touches this story at all. They have not only the audio but the video of the interview. It was an interview where Hall asked Trudeau if anything in his past could come back to haunt him. Trudeau said no.
I know there are other big stories out there but this is a #MeToo moment, one of the biggest stories of the last year across North America, and it involves our prime minister.
Will Trudeau groping allegations be covered up?
So will CBC, and other media ignore this story? Will they decide that they only have time for one Canadian political story and devote all their time to Trudeau versus Trump on the trade war?
Or will they show that for $1.5 billion a year that they can walk and chew gum at the same time.
Just to help them, I’ll link to the audio here and post the video below. The original article is below the video.
Is this the best you can do, Brian? Enquiring minds want more than a photo of some article from 18 years ago and a bunch of speculation and insinuation. Any word from the young victim? Any witnesses or statements from family friends? There’s no info on who wrote the editorial, no context, no explanation of what is meant by “handling”.
So far, this is pretty much a nothing-burger. So get on the case and do some investigating, Brian. You’re a journalist, aren’t you?
The editorial was published by the news editor at the time or are you dim ? If Justin wasn’t such a narcissistic,virtue signaling “feminist” and had he not been so holier than thou, this might be a nothing burger but, I’m hoping the victim comes forward so our boy king can eat some crow.
What ever happened with the “elbowing” incident of the NDP MP in the House of Commons? Was there ever a resolution to it? Too bad
Trudeau now has TWO assaults on women in his resume.
Does he have to get THREE strikes before he’s out???