National Post (National Edition)
Liberal MP’s stripper joke puts heat on PM
Female Conservative and NDP MPs are calling on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to discipline a male Liberal MP who made what they say is an offensive, sexually suggestive remark at a meeting of a House of Commons committee two weeks ago.
The MPs on the Commons Standing Committee on Public Safety and Security were settling down for their meeting on March 8 when the cellphone of Conservative MP Dianne Watts went off.
Watts’ daughter was calling and Watts had programmed her phone to sound a jaunty ringtone whenever she called.
But the ringtone prompted Liberal MP Nicola di Iorio to say, “Where’s your pole to slide down on?”
Though the March 8 meeting of the public safety committee was held in camera, the National Post learned of these details earlier in the week from those present at the meeting and, on Thursday, confirmed the account of the meeting with Watts herself.
The press and the public are prohibited from attending in camera meetings. Only MPs, their political staff, and House of Commons staff were present.
All those present — there might have been 20 or 25 — are normally bound not to discuss what is said at an in camera meeting but, given the extraordinary nature of di Iorio’s account, some present at this meeting provided accounts of di Iorio’s comments. Those individuals asked not to be identified.
Watts, however, agreed to speak on the record about the incident.
“Clearly, (it was) an inappropriate comment and I was taken aback by virtue of him saying that to me,” Watts said. “I just said, I beg your pardon? And he repeated it!
“Suffice to say, everyone in the room was taken aback by those comments. It was very uncomfortable for staff and other members of Parliament including myself,” said Watts.
“Clearly, when a comment is made to a woman about sliding down a pole, clearly that’s, you know, a reference to a stripper pole and I think that’s how everybody took it,” Watts said in a telephone interview from her riding in Surrey, B.C. “It was disturbing.”
Conservative MP Karen Vecchio, who was also present at the meeting, confirmed Watts’ account when interviewed Thursday afternoon. Other MPs also confirmed the account, but asked they not be identified.
After what was described as a few awkward moments, the March 8 meeting, held in a Parliament Hill committee room, continued.
After the two-hour meeting, di Iorio caught up with Watts and, while Watts could not recall the exact words, Watts said he acknowledged “by the look on your face” that what he apparently meant as a joke was not received that way.
“I’m paraphrasing … but he said, if you were offended, I didn’t mean it,” Watts said.
Di Iorio’s office, contacted Thursday, said he would be available to speak about the matter later Thursday but had not responded to an interview request by 5:30 p.m.
He was in the House of Commons Thursday afternoon for question period.
Watts did not pursue the matter further but the chair of the committee, Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, did. Oliphant, interviewed Thursday, said that while he can neither confirm nor deny the incident as it occurred in camera, confirmed that the Liberal whip, Pablo Rodriguez, has information about di Iorio.
Rodriguez, who was in the Commons Thursday, did not immediately respond to calls.
“I just think it’s up to the prime minister to decide how to deal with it,” Watts said.
“I was shocked to learn that the prime minister has known about this for two weeks,” said Vecchio. “Why is this not a priority for this feminist PM?”
Similarly, NDP MP Sheila Malcolmson, her party’s critic for the status of women, was disappointed in Trudeau.
“It’s strange that the PM, given his avowed commitment to feminism and standing up for women in Parliament, that we haven’t heard about this sooner,” she said.
Trudeau has frequently branded himself as a ‘feminist’ prime minister and did so, in fact, several times on International Women’s Day, March 8, the day di Iorio made his comment at the committee.
Trudeau, in the past, has shown little patience with inappropriate behaviour from his MPs. He tossed two male MPs out of his caucus in 2014 for inappropriate sexual advances toward female MPs.
Coincidentally, di Iorio represents the same riding — Saint-Léonard-Saint-Michel — that was represented by one of the MPs, Massimo Pacetti, who was booted from caucus.
Watts was also angered this week when di Iorio spoke in the Commons Wednesday to encourage other MPs to raise awareness, which helps protect women from unwanted sexual advances or sexual assault in bars.
“I actually felt pretty angry about that,” Watts said. “Given his comments, that was clearly hypocritical.”
WHY IS THIS NOT A PRIORITY FOR THIS FEMINIST PM?