Trudeau: ‘I did not act inappropriately’

would have been so forward.”

Trudeau’s self-professed stance as a feminist prime minister with a low tolerance for inappropriate behaviour has critics — livid that he has so far essentially shrugged off the claim — demanding an independent investigation.

Conservative MPs have been raging about it on Twitter, accusing their female Liberal counterparts of being anti-feminist and weak for failing to speak out against the alleged behaviour.

“The weakness is specific to you, because you virtue signal and refuse to set your boss to his own standard for allegations of sexual harassment,” Calgary MP Michelle Rempel tweeted at Status of Women Minister Maryam Monsef.

“There are so many others of all genders who are stronger than you.”

Trudeau did not directly address why he hasn’t ordered an independent investigation, as he did earlier this year when allegations of misconduct and harassment were made against thencabinet minister Kent Hehr.

Trudeau said he apologized at the time because the woman felt something wrong had happened — even if he felt otherwise.

“I’m responsible for my side of the interaction, which certainly, as I said, I don’t think was in any way untoward,” he said.

“But at the same time this lesson that we are learning, and I’ll be blunt about it, often a man experiences an interaction as being benign or not inappropriate and a woman, particularly in a professional context, can experience it differently. We have to respect that and reflect on that.”