Singh borrows Ontario NDP’s chief of staff
OTTAWA NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has hired an interim chief of staff whose previous management of several sexual harassment cases in Manitoba has been criticized.
The hiring of Michael Balagus, a wellknown strategist in New Democrat circles, follows a number of allegations of sexual misconduct levelled at some of the party’s former members, prompting Singh to commit to creating a safer work environment for women.
The appointment is a disappointment to Joelle Saltel-Allard, a former press secretary who says her complaint of sexual harassment against a Manitoba cabinet minister was not taken seriously.
“If Mr. Singh wants to create a safe environment, it won’t be by hiring Michael Balagus,” she said in an interview, adding the hire is a bit of a contradiction.
“For myself, it’s a demonstration that we put politics — the desire to win — ahead of the safety of women,” she added.
Balagus said earlier this year that Saltel-Allard’s complaint was never reported to him.
Balagus is on loan from the Ontario NDP for up to two months while Singh finds a permanent chief of staff to replace Willy Blomme, who left for personal reasons in October.
The long-time NDP strategist has worked for two Manitoba NDP government as well as former federal NDP leader Audrey McLaughlin in the early 1990s.
The alleged harassment of SaltelAllard took place between 2009 and 2011 while Balagus was working as chief of staff to former Manitoba premier Greg Selinger. She was working at the time as a press secretary for cabinet minister Stan Struthers.
Saltel-Allard and four other women have alleged that Struthers tickled and groped them but that their complaints to party brass were ignored. Saltel-Allard said she was informed through her supervisor she would have to “suck it up” with an election on the horizon.