Kenney’s ‘lieutenant’ has to go, Notley says
United Conservative Party house leader Jason Nixon isn’t stepping down over revelations he fired an employee after she complained about sexual harassment.
But Tuesday evening in the legislature, Nixon said he deeply regrets failing to stand up for his employee.
Premier Rachel Notley called for Nixon’s head Tuesday morning. She said UCP Leader Jason Kenney needed to fire Nixon — “his handpicked political lieutenant” — from his leadership role, as she would do if the tables were turned.
Later, in question period, she told Nixon he needed to “carefully consider his role in the house and the message the UCP is sending to women.”
Kenney is sticking by the member for Rimbey-Rocky Mountain House-Sundre.
In an emailed statement, he said Nixon was 25 at the time of the harassment, and it happened on a work site Nixon didn’t control.
Notley fired back that Kenney’s defence of Nixon was even more troubling.
“To all women across Alberta, I say that I’m very deeply sorry that this is happening amongst the leadership in this province,” she said.
The 2008 case stems from incidents on a B.C. construction site where Nixon Safety Consulting was contracted to provide safety services.
When the woman first complained to her boss, Nixon, about sexual harassment, he tried to find solutions.
Ultimately, Nixon’s client said it no longer wanted the woman on the site. Rather than terminating the contract with his client, Nixon fired the complainant.
The case went to B.C.’s human rights tribunal and the woman was awarded $32,000 in damages and lost wages.
The case came to light after the UCP spent days debating workplace legislation in the house. Part of Bill 30 mandates anti-harassment policies for all Alberta workplaces.
Notley called Nixon’s rejection of the bill “disingenuous,” particularly because the legislation aims to ensure women know they’re protected when they report workplace sexual harassment.
“Mr. Nixon has gone into the house and fought against the bill that would have protected someone in Alberta in the very same situation as the woman Mr. Nixon chose to fire,” she said. “To get up and speak to the matter in the house, without disclosing to people his own history and the record of what an administrative tribunal found he did, I don’t know how you can do that every day.”
Nixon said Tuesday night he never intended his words to mean he didn’t support the anti-harassment portion of the 100-plus-page bill, but they “can and have been interpreted in a different manner.”
In an earlier interview, he said education about sexual harassment and working with industry was a bigger priority than writing down a piece of legislation.
Notley fired back that Nixon’s assertion industry would lead the charge in solving harassment doesn’t hold water.
“I think it is incredibly disingenuous, and, I would say deeply dishonest, frankly, of Mr. Nixon to make a statement like that when he has first-hand experience of how industry isn’t doing the right thing,” she said.
The Alberta Federation of Labour also called on Kenney to fire Nixon.
In a letter, AFL president Gil McGowan asked the UCP leader to “find the courage and internal fortitude to take a stand against sexual harassment.”
“Working Albertans — both women and men — are watching,” he wrote.