CBC apologizes to NDP MP Christine Moore over relationship report
OTTAWA — The CBC apologized to NDP MP Christine Moore on Thursday for failing to meet all of its editorial standards.
The network said in a story published on its website last May that Moore was the subject of allegations of sexual misconduct involving a former soldier.
CBC’s article was picked up by other media and the Quebec-based MP was then suspended from her caucus duties.
The CBC said in a statement Thursday that Moore was asked in May to respond to the allegations but requested more time, which the broadcaster acknowledged it did not provide but should have.
Moore strongly denied the relationship with Glen Kirkland was anything but fully mutual and consensual, and CBC said it was apologizing to Moore for any inference to the contrary.
In a statement, the MP for the AbitibiTemiscamingue riding said she was happy CBC had “acknowledged the facts” and offered an apology.
“Here’s another entity that confirms my version of the facts as well as the mutual and consensual nature of my brief relationship with Glen Kirkland in 2013 when I was single,” she said.
Moore told The Canadian Press in a brief phone conversation she has dropped her plans to sue the CBC for defamation.
She said is still evaluating whether to pursue legal action against Kirkland and two other media outlets that reported on the story.
An investigator’s report absolved Moore last July of any wrongdoing, prompting NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh to restore her caucus duties.
On Thursday, Singh said he welcomed the network’s apology but was not surprised by it.
“I think (the apology) is appropriate,” he told reporters in Ottawa.
“I have full confidence in Christine and I look forward to continue to work with her now that she’s been fully reintegrated into caucus.”
Kirkland, a retired corporal, accused Moore earlier this year of inappropriate behaviour and abusing her power in their relationship in 2013.
Moore, who has held AbitibiTemiscamingue since 2011, said earlier this year she loved Kirkland back in 2013.
In July, when she was cleared, she said it was too early to say whether she will run again in next year’s election and that the decision will be made by her and her family.
Moore and Kirkland met on June 5, 2013, when Kirkland, who was injured in a Taliban ambush in 2008, testified at a parliamentary committee about the treatment of injured soldiers.
Kirkland alleged Moore invited him back to her office after the committee meeting and plied him with alcohol before following him back to his hotel, where they had sex.
He alleges she then continued to send him explicit messages for several weeks and even turned up unannounced at his Manitoba home before he forcibly told her to stop.
Moore, however, disputed Kirkland’s account, providing The Canadian Press last May with photos, emails, text messages and flight itineraries to show the two were involved in a romantic relationship.
The MP said she ended the relationship in October 2013 due to the geographic distance between them as well as Kirkland’s difficult divorce.