BONOKOSKI: Shocker! Resurfaced editorial slams Justin Trudeau as a groper
Mark Bonokoski
More from Mark Bonokoski
Published:
June 7, 2018
Updated:
June 7, 2018 8:58 PM EDT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 6, 2018.PATRICK DOYLE / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Our feminist preacher of a prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had best bone up on the scriptures before he lectures again on how to treat women.
John 8:7 might be a good place to start, especially the bit about letting he who is without sin cast the first stone.
That’s always been a good one.
There are a bunch of others, of course, that don’t need paraphrased quotations from the Bible to deliver the same sort of message. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, for example.
That one’s a honey, too.
And then there is this. Everything old is new again, an expression that certainly applies to the story now taking on a new life on social media about claims of Trudeau’s “groping” of a young female reporter 18 years ago while visiting the Kootenay-area town of Creston Valley, B.C., (Pop: 5,300).
The editor of Creston Valley Advance certainly wasn’t impressed with Trudeau’s alleged sexual manhandling of his reporter, and even wrote an editorial about the incident—headlined, “Open eyes”— which is just now heating up Twitter.
The woman who answered the phone at the Advance remembers the incident, but not the name of the reporter.
The newspaper’s publisher, Lorne Eckersley, responded to an email while on vacation, stating “the editorial is authentic” and was written by an editor who worked at the Advance before his time.
The newspaper led off its editorial with what it called Trudeau’s one-day-late “apology” to the unnamed reporter, which wasn’t an apology at all but more like some high-society toff looking down his nose at someone who was obviously a lesser being.
For this is what Trudeau reportedly said to the offended young woman: “I’m sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national newspaper, I would never have been so forward.”
Say what? That it’s somehow okay to be inappropriate with a young reporter from a small-town weekly, but not to a reporter who might be also making a few extra bucks by stringing her story to a national newspaper?
What would be hashtag be for that?
#MeTooButNotYou?
Or
#MeTooDepending?
This all allegedly happened when Trudeau was visiting the B.C. resort town and attending a local festival in August, 2000. But he was no kid at the time.
He was 29.
As the editorial rightly asked all those 18 years ago, “shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?
“Didn’t he learn through his vast experiences in public life, that groping a strange young woman isn’t in the handbook of proper etiquette regardless of who she is, what her business is, or where they are.”
The prime minster, of course, would rather have attention on the G7 summit currently underway north of Quebec City.
But his office dodged queries about the specifics of the alleged incident.
“As the PM has said before, be has always been very careful to treat everyone with respect,” wrote Trudeau press secretary Matt Pascuzzo.
“His first experiences with activism were on the issue of sexual assault at McGill University, and he knows the importance of being thoughtful and respectful.
“He remembers being in Creston for the Avalanche Foundation,” said Pascuzzo, “But he doesn’t think he had any negative interactions there.”
So, there it is then, the same old he-said, she-said joust.
And it all allegedly happened too long ago, of course, to have cell phones in everyone’s pocket with picture-taking abilities, and too long ago to matter for someone who had yet declared he was a feminist seeking to become PM.
So, move on folks, and forget what you just read.
markbonokoski@gmail.com
BONOKOSKI: Shocker! Resurfaced editorial slams Justin Trudeau as a groper | Toronto Sun
Mark Bonokoski
More from Mark Bonokoski
Published:
June 7, 2018
Updated:
June 7, 2018 8:58 PM EDT
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau rises during Question Period in the House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Wednesday, June 6, 2018.PATRICK DOYLE / THE CANADIAN PRESS
Our feminist preacher of a prime minister, Justin Trudeau, had best bone up on the scriptures before he lectures again on how to treat women.
John 8:7 might be a good place to start, especially the bit about letting he who is without sin cast the first stone.
That’s always been a good one.
There are a bunch of others, of course, that don’t need paraphrased quotations from the Bible to deliver the same sort of message. Those who live in glass houses should not throw stones, for example.
That one’s a honey, too.
And then there is this. Everything old is new again, an expression that certainly applies to the story now taking on a new life on social media about claims of Trudeau’s “groping” of a young female reporter 18 years ago while visiting the Kootenay-area town of Creston Valley, B.C., (Pop: 5,300).
The editor of Creston Valley Advance certainly wasn’t impressed with Trudeau’s alleged sexual manhandling of his reporter, and even wrote an editorial about the incident—headlined, “Open eyes”— which is just now heating up Twitter.
The woman who answered the phone at the Advance remembers the incident, but not the name of the reporter.
The newspaper’s publisher, Lorne Eckersley, responded to an email while on vacation, stating “the editorial is authentic” and was written by an editor who worked at the Advance before his time.
The newspaper led off its editorial with what it called Trudeau’s one-day-late “apology” to the unnamed reporter, which wasn’t an apology at all but more like some high-society toff looking down his nose at someone who was obviously a lesser being.
For this is what Trudeau reportedly said to the offended young woman: “I’m sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national newspaper, I would never have been so forward.”
Say what? That it’s somehow okay to be inappropriate with a young reporter from a small-town weekly, but not to a reporter who might be also making a few extra bucks by stringing her story to a national newspaper?
What would be hashtag be for that?
#MeTooButNotYou?
Or
#MeTooDepending?
This all allegedly happened when Trudeau was visiting the B.C. resort town and attending a local festival in August, 2000. But he was no kid at the time.
He was 29.
As the editorial rightly asked all those 18 years ago, “shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?
“Didn’t he learn through his vast experiences in public life, that groping a strange young woman isn’t in the handbook of proper etiquette regardless of who she is, what her business is, or where they are.”
The prime minster, of course, would rather have attention on the G7 summit currently underway north of Quebec City.
But his office dodged queries about the specifics of the alleged incident.
“As the PM has said before, be has always been very careful to treat everyone with respect,” wrote Trudeau press secretary Matt Pascuzzo.
“His first experiences with activism were on the issue of sexual assault at McGill University, and he knows the importance of being thoughtful and respectful.
“He remembers being in Creston for the Avalanche Foundation,” said Pascuzzo, “But he doesn’t think he had any negative interactions there.”
So, there it is then, the same old he-said, she-said joust.
And it all allegedly happened too long ago, of course, to have cell phones in everyone’s pocket with picture-taking abilities, and too long ago to matter for someone who had yet declared he was a feminist seeking to become PM.
So, move on folks, and forget what you just read.
markbonokoski@gmail.com
BONOKOSKI: Shocker! Resurfaced editorial slams Justin Trudeau as a groper | Toronto Sun
