Trudeau respects Kang’s decision to resign, won’t say if he asked him to

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he respects the decision of Calgary MP Darshan Kang to step away from the Liberal caucus while sexual harassment allegations against him are investigated.

But Trudeau won’t say whether he personally asked Kang to resign.

Kang said he’s leaving the governing party’s caucus to focus his efforts on clearing his name.

He resigned from caucus Thursday night, shortly after The Hill Times reported that a woman who worked in Kang’s constituency office when he was a member of the Alberta legislature has come forward alleging she was sexually harassed. The woman alleged in an interview that Kang grabbed her breasts, among other inappropriate behaviour, and would not desist in the harassment despite repeatedly being asked to stop. Kang, who was elected federally in 2015, is already under investigation after a young woman who worked in his federal constituency office complained in June of sexual harassment.

That woman’s father told the Toronto Star earlier this week that Kang allegedly offered the staffer as much as $100,000 if she didn’t tell her parents about the harassment. The Star cited the woman’s father, who was not named, alleging that Kang repeatedly harassed his daughter over a period of four or five years.

Among the father’s accusations: Kang gave his daughter unwanted hugs, stroked or held her hand, once took her to an apartment where he tried to remove her jacket and followed her the next day to her hotel and tried to get into her room to talk.

When asked about Kang Friday, Trudeau said the House of Commons has a processes for investigating harassment complaints that respects both the complainant’s and the respondent’s rights.