‘CALCULATED AMBIGUITY’
Coyne on Trudeau allegation; accuser breaks silence
When it first surfaced that, 18 years ago, a young reporter had accused Justin Trudeau of groping her, it seemed the prime minister was caught in a trap of his own making.
Deny the accusation, published in an unsigned article in the newspaper she worked for, the Creston Valley Advance, and he would be contradicting his own admonition to believe all women. Admit it, and he would be confessing to an offence that, if it did not expose him to criminal charges, would certainly expose him to accusations of hypocrisy, given the swift justice he has meted out to others in similar circumstances.
And so he froze. For two months after the article and its incendiary accusation came to light, the prime minister said nothing. For weeks, after it was given new life last month on social media, his office issued the same lawyerly statement: that Trudeau remembered being in Creston but “doesn’t think he had any negative interactions” there.
When at last Trudeau himself addressed the matter, after the National Post published a story in which the newspaper’s former editor and publisher confirmed the reporter came to them with the same accusation, it was on precisely the same line. He told reporters Sunday that he remembered “that day in Creston well,” that he had “a good day that day,” and that “I don’t remember any negative interactions that day at all."
As Prime Minister Justin Trudeau continued to face questions Friday over an alleged groping incident from 18 years ago, the woman who initially made the allegation broke her recent silence, saying the incident “did occur as reported.”
In a statement offering the caveat that she represents no organization, media outlet or political movement, the woman said she is standing by the account of the events outlined in an August 2000 editorial published in a small-town B.C. newspaper that alleged Trudeau “groped” and “inappropriately handled” her.
“I issue this statement reluctantly in response to mounting media pressure,” the woman said in the statement, which CBC published Friday. While her name was included in the statement as CBC published it, the Post is still choosing not to name her out of respect for her request for privacy. She has previously declined the Post’s requests for comment.
In August 2000, Trudeau, then 28, attended a music festival in Creston, B.C., to accept a donation for the construction of a lodge to be built in the nearby provincial park where his brother Michel had died two years earlier.
“I was a reporter for the Creston Valley Advance from 1999 through 2001," the woman’s statement said. "I was assigned to cover the August 2000 Creston music festival by my employer and was the reporter referred to in the editorial.
“The incident referred to in the editorial did occur as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day. I did not pursue the incident at the time and will not be pursuing the incident further. I have had no subsequent contact with Mr. Trudeau before or after he became prime minister... The debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement,” she wrote.
At an appearance in Calgary Friday, reporters asked Trudeau for his reaction.
“As I’ve said from the very beginning, I would never presume to speak for her or to have a perspective on how she should feel or should act on this," Trudeau said. "I respect very much her right and her ability to make choices about what is best for her and her family and I obviously will continue to stand as a defender of understanding and respect for individuals and the experiences they go through.”