Wynne won’t budge on naming MPPs in sexual harassment cases
PC leader accuses premier of having a ‘double standard’ for lacking transparency
Premier Kathleen Wynne is clinging to secrecy under renewed pressure to reveal which Liberal MPPs were taken to task for sexual harassment.
Wynne sent one of her cabinet ministers to defend the decision not to name the members of her caucus or reveal any details of the circumstances or any discipline.
“The confidentiality aspect is key in order for victims to feel comfortable to come forward,” government House leader Yasir Naqvi said Wednesday, citing the Liberal caucus policy that privacy be respected.
“So the premier discussing details can seriously jeopardize that,” he added, acknowledging “it’s a very difficult position for the premier to be at, but she has to respect that process.”
Naqvi said he does not know who the MPPs are, whether the incidents occurred before or after Wynne talked publicly of dealing with such matters in November 2014, or what discipline was meted out.
Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown said the lack of detail raises questions about how seriously Wynne took the allegations.
“Maybe the reason there isn’t transparency is that the discipline was inadequate,” Brown said after the legislature’s daily question period, in which neither opposition party asked Wynne about the matters.
“If the premier took any discipline, I think it would behoove her to share that and be transparent. I hope she’ll do that,” added Brown, who has accused Wynne of a “double standard” for urging him to turf MPP Jack MacLaren from caucus for a vulgar sex joke aimed at an Ottawa-area Liberal MP.
Wynne maintained Tuesday she won’t reveal any details about “a couple of incidents” of sexual harassment involving at least two Liberal MPPs because “the people who brought complaints forward were not looking for a public process.”
On April 18, Brown ordered MacLaren back to his suburban Ottawa riding of Carleton—Mississippi Mills for “substantive” sensitivity training as a condition for being allowed back into the legislature at some point. NDP Leader Andrea Horwath, who raised concerns Tuesday about complaints from some of her female MPPs about “inappropriate touching” around the legislature, also refused to provide further details for privacy reasons.
“I’m not prepared to divulge specific individuals or specific complaints because I respect the women who came to me and talked to me about their concerns.”
Horwath added that some of her MPPs have also felt degraded by “locker-room talk” from rival parties in the legislature, a concern she has raised previously with other leaders.
She took issue with Wynne two weeks ago singling out MacLaren, whose remarks centred on Liberal MP Karen McCrimmon at a “men’s night” cancer charity fundraiser in Carp, Ont.
“You can’t have it both ways,” Horwath said. “You can’t try to call out another leader for not doing something when you, in fact, are not being up front and transparent about what you’re doing.”