Afghan vet levels sexual misconduct allegation against NDP MP

OTTAWA — NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh has temporarily suspended Quebec MP Christine Moore from her duties with the party and ordered an investigation after a veteran of the war in Afghanistan accused her of inappropriate sexual behaviour.

The allegations against Moore are the latest to rock the NDP; Singh expelled another MP from caucus last week following a three-month investigation that was sparked by a complaint from Moore.

In an interview, retired corporal Glen Kirkland said Moore first approached him after he testified before a parliamentary committee in June 2013, where he had been asked to speak on the treatment of ill and injured soldiers.

Kirkland was wounded in an ambush in Afghanistan in 2008 while driving a light-armoured vehicle that was hit by recoilless rifle fire. The shot killed three other soldiers and left Kirkland with severe injuries, including a damaged pancreas and right eye, crushed vertebrae, bleeding in the brain and PTSD. “She took interest in my health because her background is in nursing,” Kirkland told The Canadian Press by telephone on Tuesday.

“She asked me back to her office. I was a corporal in the military and a member of Parliament asked me to do something. There was no thought process. It was just the way it was.

“She started pouring me drinks and I told her: ‘I’m on medication,”’ Kirkland continued. “I told her what I was on. She said it was fine. I was like: ‘Okay, you’re a nurse and you’re kind of my boss, so what am I going to say’?”