NDP leader created Weir debacle
The article Campaign workers want Weir to resign
(Sept. 21) reports, “The petition accuses (MP Erin) Weir of choosing to publicly politicize the investigation ...” The petitioners are concerned this politicization makes it harder for women to come forward with harassment complaints.
When the rumours and innuendo from MP Christine Moore’s email opposing Erin’s candidacy for NDP caucus chair became public, it was federal leader Jagmeet Singh who chose to politicize the investigation.
Singh could have said, “Although we don’t have any specific complaints, we do have established processes to address harassment through the NDP staff collective agreement and the House of Commons. We will assist any complainants to access these processes.”
Those two processes offer confidentiality to both the complainant and the accused. They encourage the parties to work out their differences directly or through a mediator.
Erin’s sins were having an argument with one complainant or standing too close and talking too long with others (while not picking up on non-verbal cues that this was not wanted). The discomfort surrounding these interactions could easily have been resolved by communication between the parties, likely leading to some education, an apology, and an effort to improve in the future. This approach would have provided a much more satisfying resolution for the complainants than what has happened.
Instead of reaching for this available solution, Singh attempted to outdo Prime Minister Justin Trudeau by making a big splash with the #Metoo movement. He basically declared Erin guilty by suspending him from caucus duties while baying on about “believing survivors” before he had even received a specific complaint.
Having announced an investigation on national TV, Singh needed something to investigate, so his office sent an email to 250 NDP staffers soliciting complaints. Singh’s office also cold-called female employees in the Regina-lewvan constituency office and invited them to complain. Singh made up an investigative process that seemed designed to achieve a finding of harassment, rather than to constructively resolve misunderstandings. And sure enough, the investigator was able to jumble the complaints together to make something out of very little.
Singh has continued his poor decision-making by dismissing longtime Saskatchewan New Democrats as “privileged” rather than addressing their substantive concerns about this flawed process. Singh responded to calls for an appeal by pouting that, since he was satisfied with the investigation and the findings, there was no need for an appeal.
Singh’s grandstanding is what has created the media circus. The petitioners’ disgust should be directed at his decision to create a spectacle. They need to stop enabling and defending Singh’s tragically poor choices.
David Weir, father of Erin Weir, Regina