Groping allegations against Campbell shock B.C. politicians
Veteran B.C. politicians are reacting with disbelief to an allegation of sexual assault made against former Premier Gordon Campbell.
The alleged assault happened in 2013 in London while Campbell was Canadian High Commissioner to Britain, and is now being investigated by the city’s metropolitan police force, according to a report by The Daily Telegraph published Friday.
A spokesman for Campbell told The Telegraph that the complaint was “transparently disclosed,” investigated by the Canadian government at the time, and “found to be without merit.”
His alleged victim, an embassy worker named Judith Prins, 54, is a Dutch-Canadian mother-ofthree who lives in the U.K. She made her formal complaint in early 2014 and “resolved” it on terms she is isn’t allowed to discuss, according to The Telegraph.
But compelled by the #MeToo movement and claims against billionaire businessman Sir Philip Green, she then made a complaint to local police on Jan. 3 this year, and gave details to the newspaper of her allegation, along with “several more claims of inappropriate behaviour” that happened over seven months.
“She claims that two months before the Remembrance Sunday service, Gordon Campbell’s hand — which was now clutching her country’s tribute to the Glorious Dead — had found its way below her midriff, uninvited, before landing firmly on the right side of her bottom,” according to The Telegraph.
“Ms. Prins, then a Canadian embassy worker, had been climbing the main staircase of Canada House to a meeting, unaware that Mr. Campbell, her country’s top diplomat in London, had been following close behind her.”
Campbell served as Canada’s High Commissioner to Britain from 2011 to 2016. He was B.C. premier from 2001 to 2011 and also served as mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993.
Reached by phone Friday, Sheila Orr, who worked with Campbell for about 12 years in the B.C. Liberal party and as an MLA, said she knows him well and never saw him behave inappropriately with anyone during that time.
“Gordon Campbell is not a warm and fuzzy person, but under no circumstances have I ever seen him groping anybody,” she said.
Orr said she did not wish to diminish Prins’ allegation and only wanted to speak about her personal experience working with Campbell.
“Gordon Campbell was such a cold fish, I could never imagine him groping anybody,” she said.
Sam Sullivan, who was mayor of Vancouver from 2005 to 2008, said that while it is important to take any sexual assault allegation seriously, the groping claim made against Campbell described behaviour “completely out of character” for him.
“He’s a good man, he’s never had any intimation about anything like that,” he said. “I don’t know what to say other than that. He’s an amazing person who’s done so much.”
Sullivan said that when he was mayor, he would hear chatter about alleged misconduct, but Campbell’s name never came up. He declined to repeat those allegations.
Former MLA Ida Chong, who worked with Campbell in various capacities for 15 years, said he never made any “untoward advances” to her.
“He showed nothing but respect around me,” she said.
She said Campbell would be warm with caucus colleagues during difficult times, such as the loss of a family member, but never offered anything more than a hug. He never touched anyone inappropriately, to her knowledge.
Carole Taylor, a former Liberal cabinet minister, said she had hadn’t heard of the allegation before she was contacted by Postmedia. She and Campbell had a friendly, professional relationship, she said.
“I never had any experience or knowledge of that with Gordon,” she said.
Martyn Brown, Campbell’s longtime former chief of staff, said he hadn’t heard about the allegation or read the Telegraph story, and was shocked by the report.
“In my 13 years of working for him, never did I ever experience anything like this with him.”
In January of 2003, Campbell was convicted of drunk driving while on vacation in Hawaii.
The then-Liberal premier spent a night in jail and pleaded guilty to driving with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. He now lives in Ontario and is remarried.