NDP case against Weir filled with unfairness

It was a little more than five years ago that Erin Weir ended his dream to one day become Saskatchewan premier by halting his futile and clumsy provincial NDP leadership bid.

The then 30-year-old Weir threw his support behind the candidate he said had a “similar progressive vision” — Ryan Meili. Meili would fall 46 votes short of defeating Cam Broten in 2013, but persisted to become NDP leader in March.

Weir would go on to win the federal Regina-Lewvan NDP nomination and become the riding ’s MP in 2015.

The now 35-year-old Weir remains the riding ’s MP, but has now been expelled from the federal NDP caucus by leader Jagmeet Singh for still-unclear inappropriate behaviour.

Before one veers too far down the road of political correctness gone awry, let us be clear that if we expect true leadership, we should respect a leader’s right to make a tough call to correct past societal wrongs. This isn’t about some sort of “new socially acceptable workplace standard.” It’s about what’s been wrong for decades that needs to stop.

But just because a leader is making a tough decision, it doesn’t mean he or she made the right one.

Singh said Weir was expelled for going public on the conclusions of the NDP caucus-commissioned report into allegations of sexual and other harassment and, thus making life difficult for the still-anonymous complainants. The report suggested Weir would cease pursuing any romantic relations when told “no,” but was somewhat oblivious to “non-verbal cues” of unwanted attention.

“I didn’t initially realize I’d done anything wrong,” Weir told CBC’s As It Happens, adding that he considered the process flawed. “But reading a summary of those complaints, it became clear that I had sometimes been slow to pick up on social cues.”

He added he was also unaware of other aspects of his social awkwardness like sitting too close to people and lingering in conversations for too long.

There may be more to this story to buttress Singh’s actions, but — at least by Weir’s response — it appears he concurs with at least some of the report’s findings. Clearly, Weir did not accept everything in a process he considers flawed.

Singh says his first inclination was to opt for “rehabilitation,” which, in hindsight, seems a more reasoned and measured response if we are talking about standing too close and being awkward in the workplace.

Again, assuming there isn’t more to all this we haven’t heard, it appears the issue central to the actual allegation is that Weir is an awkward guy who sometimes just doesn’t get it — the stated conclusion of Singh and the report and the view of most everyone else on the outside trying to figure all this out.

Has Weir been expelled because he is social awkward and doesn’t often get it? If so, it would be the height of hypocrisy. To better understand, let’s go back to that Saskatchewan NDP leadership five years ago.

A self-described economics/political wonk, the only thing more apparent than Erin Weir’s intellect and talent is his awkwardness.

During that 2013 provincial leadership campaign, it was actually Weir on the cutting edge of policy debate. He called for $7-a-day daycare, an $11 minimum wage, backfilling federal Old Age Security providing benefits past 65 years and less dependence on burning coal for electricity.

“Notwithstanding his awkwardness, which was fully on display during the recent NDP leadership debates, it always seemed to be Weir who was most eager to engage at these forums,” this column stated on Feb. 22, 2013.

However, that very comment brought down a deluge of criticism from Weir’s friends, family and party members who argued social awkwardness was not fair game in assessing leadership.

Now, it is appears it is the party condemning Weir for the very same awkward personality quirks. It is doing so in a far more destructive way.

Unless there is much more to the Weir story than we see, this is simply wrong.