Criticism of Regina MP Weir off mark
In her Sept. 10 commentary (Weir needs to understand impact of his actions), Angella Macewen repeats the same sloppy arguments the federal NDP is using to justify its mistreatment of Reginalewvan MP Erin Weir.
She falsely accuses Erin of “calling the charges ‘trumped up’ and identifying one of the women who had come forward.”
In fact, he never identified any of the complainants, and none of their names have ever been reported anywhere.
Erin did state, “I object to the use of backroom procedural tactics — and now a trumped-up harassment complaint — to shut down democratic debate in the New Democratic Party.”
Erin was clearly referring to one single complaint, not to all the “charges” or “accusations” (plural). He was not referring to the three complaints that were lumped together and called sexual harassment.
He never addressed those complaints until their existence was released by Jagmeet Singh, days after the above quote.
As reported by the media, the only comment Erin has ever directed to those three complainants is to publicly apologize for inadvertently making them feel uncomfortable and offering to enter into conciliation with anyone who wanted to.
Erin did criticize the mislabelling of social awkwardness as sexual harassment. He said the actions complained about — standing too close and talking too long — fall well short of what most Canadians consider sexual harassment. Judging by the tremendous support and sympathy he has received both on the street and in the press, he is correct.
Erin knows that the one harassment complaint was filled with false statements. Is Macewen arguing that you can’t defend yourself from a false complaint or a poor decision by an investigator — that to protest your innocence makes you more guilty?
Macewen argues, “When the negative impact of one’s actions are pointed out, a person should accept responsibility, apologize, and try to do better in the future.” This is a good summary of Erin’s response to the three other complainants. He never attacked their credibility. He apologized and he completed training to better understand how not to make anyone feel uncomfortable in the future.
Macewen writes, “... good leaders make tough choices.” In this case, Jagmeet Singh made a series of poor decisions. If anything has diminished support for the fight against harassment, it is the ham-handed way Singh has dealt with this issue — not Erin’s legitimate attempts to defend himself.