NEW ALLEGATIONS OF SEXUAL IMPROPRIETY AGAINST FORMER NDP MP PETER STOFFER HAVE EMERGED AS NEW DEMOCRATS PREPARE FOR THEIR NATIONAL CONVENTION, WHERE CALLS FOR CHANGE WILL ‘PLAY A MAJOR ROLE.’
NDP to update harassment policy at party convention
• New allegations of sexual impropriety against popular former NDP MP Peter Stoffer are emerging just as New Democrats prepare for their national convention, where calls for change are expected to be raised.
The Post’s initial investigation has sparked other women coming forward saying they also had unpleasant, unwanted experiences with Stoffer, spanning years — and saw a lack of action after raising concerns. Two of the women encountered Stoffer during their work as pages, one was a delegate at an NDP convention and another was attending a reception on Parliament Hill.
Stoffer declined to comment when the Post contacted him seeking comment on these additional allegations. “I have nothing further to add,” he said in a text message.
Stoffer had earlier denied specific allegations from women who spoke with the Post, including that he forced kisses on a staff member in 2006 and 2009 and that he insistently pulled a volunteer toward a threesome, ignoring her protestations, in 2016.
“Everybody knows I’m a hugger and I’m a touchy person in this regard,” Stoffer said at a media conference Friday, after the Post’s initial revelations. “If anyone feels those actions were untoward, I regrettably apologize…. I did not in any way in my intention intend to insult or demean or belittle any person in this regard,” he said.
An NDP official confirmed party president Marit Stiles asked Stoffer not to attend the national convention in Ottawa next weekend. Stoffer himself confirmed at his press conference addressing the allegations Friday that he would be steering clear.
The discussions around Stoffer are bringing new urgency to conversations, on social media and among party members, around how the NDP deals with harassment complaints ahead of its biennial policy convention in Ottawa next weekend.
A party official confirmed to the Post that the party’s harassment policy will “play a major role” at the convention. A new draft policy and new training modules will be worked on, the official said, and “anti-harassment officers” will be on the floor gathering input. The official said plans have been in place for months but suggested that some resolutions coming to the floor, being made public on Tuesday, may be moved up on the priority list.
One of the new allegations to come forward involves a former House of Commons page who said she was at a gathering of pages and MPs at a pub near Parliament Hill in 2004 when Stoffer asked if she had a boyfriend and what her weekend plans were — and then kissed her right on the mouth.
“I sat across a table from Mr. Stoffer and, it’s been a while, you know, but I just precisely remember him leaning over the table and planting a big kiss on me, just out of nowhere … on the mouth,” she said.
Stephanie, who asked her last name not be published for professional reasons, said she was 18 at the time, had never had a boyfriend before and the sudden move took her by surprise.
“I just remember kind of going into shock and going like, ‘OK, I’m uncomfortable. I’m leaving,’ ” she said.
She said about a year later, she decided to contact current pages to warn them about Stoffer’s behaviour and ask if anyone else had had similar experiences. A lawyer had told her that if more complainants came forward there might be grounds for a Canadian Human Rights Tribunal complaint, she said.
Her emails to pages ultimately reached a member of the House of Commons administration, who contacted her. She said they reacted “very dismissively.” In emails she shared with the Post, a deputy clerk said no incidents had been brought forward to or witnessed by page supervisors.
She said she was asked for “specific facts” as evidence to back up her allegations. “I had no proof. I felt intimidated and embarrassed,” she said.
“As a young person, when you’re going to a bar with MPs, you trust them and you kind of expect respect from someone that’s been elected,” she said. “You’re impressionable, right? You can be kind of in awe of these people. It’s just sad that someone can come off friendly but then use that to get too close.”
Breanna Ho said she also had an unpleasant encounter with Stoffer at the party’s 2011 federal convention in Vancouver.
“I was standing with some fellow delegates at the convention when Peter Stoffer came over and began talking to us. I was 27 at the time and married, with my husband not standing far from me,” Ho said.
“Someone introduced Peter Stoffer to me and he immediately started coming on to me in this creepy older man way. He grabbed my arm quite aggressively, pulling me closer to him so that I was almost against his body,” she said. “He was grabbing me in a way that was extremely inappropriate and rubbing my arm up and down in a sexual way and pulling me as close to him as possible.
“He commented about how beautiful my tattoos were and wouldn’t let go, even though I was clearly uncomfortable. I finally pulled my arm away and excused myself. This was the first time I had ever met him.”
Ho’s account was corroborated to the Post by her husband, who was involved in the party at the time. He said he was on the convention floor within sight when it happened and she complained to him immediately after the encounter with Stoffer.
Another woman, who asked her name not be published, said that she came to Parliament Hill to become a parliamentary page in 2000, when she was 19 and bursting with enthusiasm for politics.
She was surprised to find herself invited to parties, including at Stoffer’s office, where he had a pool table and dartboard. She was given alcohol there and ended up flat-out drunk, she said.
About a year later when she was working as an NDP staff member, she said she was in an Ottawa bar popular with the party when Stoffer made a blunt proposition to her.
“Let’s go have sex,” she said Stoffer said. The woman brushed it off but said the comment, and other comments by Stoffer and other men, spoiled her interest in politics.
“I became completely disillusioned with the process and left after seeing these people close up,” she said.
Another woman, who did not wish to be named but whose identity was confirmed by the Post, said her work brought her to a reception on Parliament Hill in 2012 where she met Stoffer for the first time.
Before she knew who he was, Stoffer approached her with a “huge hug and cheek kiss,” a kiss she described as “not the usual European diplomat cheek kiss.”
“I didn’t even know who this guy was that was touching me,” she said. “It was weird, and I’ve avoided him ever since.”
For years, the woman said, she thought she was overreacting or being too uptight about an experience that made her feel uncomfortable. She said she had always worried that because he was so popular, maybe she was just overreacting and should “get over it.”
The apparently tepid response of party officials at the time to deal with some of the allegations has riven the party faithful.
Holly Price, who worked on the leadership campaign of Manitoba MP Niki Ashton last year, took to Twitter with screenshots of a Facebook conversation she said serves as an example of a “growing list of men in the @NDP that fail as allies.”
The screenshots show an NDP volunteer sharing an article about Stoffer and asking, “why do I see so few of my NDP friends posting about how disgusting Stoffer is while many jumped to celebrate the allegations against Patrick Brown and Kent Hehr?” A former organizer for B.C. MP Peter Julian’s leadership campaign commented on the post saying, “Why are you advertising the faults of our own party?”
Amy Kishek, a longtime NDP volunteer who worked on Parliament Hill in 2009 and 2010, is attending the convention and looking forward to confronting the harassment issue and policies.
What struck her most about the allegations against Stoffer was that concerns weren’t addressed head-on despite the party and leader’s office being made aware of the inappropriate behaviour as early as 2006.
“We had so many individuals who were proud feminists and who purported to be working to advance women in the party. So I was disappointed in how it was handled,” she said, adding that harassment on the Hill is an “endemic” problem that she observed while working there.
IT’S JUST SAD THAT SOMEONE CAN COME OFF FRIENDLY BUT THEN USE THAT TO GET TOO CLOSE.