Buckdog

 

By Eric Cline
Former Saskatchewan New Democrat Minister of Justice


Erin Weir is not well-known outside of Canada. Even many Canadian readers won’t recognize the politician’s name. But the story of how he was smeared and excommunicated by his own political party presents a stunning indictment of political cowardice in the age of #MeToo. And what happened to him could happen to virtually anyone who runs for office.
Weir is a federal Member of Parliament (MP), having been elected in 2015 to represent the Saskatchewan riding of Regina-Lewvan. He ran in that election as a candidate for the New Democratic Party (NDP), which sits to the political left of Justin Trudeau’s governing Liberals, and constitutes the third-largest party in the Canadian parliament. His downfall began on January 30, 2018, the day he announced his candidacy for NDP caucus chair by sending an email to other NDP MPs, and to the leader of the federal NDP, Jagmeet Singh (who, at the time, had not yet become a Member of Parliament). The email set off a chain of events that eventually led to his expulsion from the NDP caucus, and stripped him of the opportunity to stand as a candidate for the party in the upcoming Fall, 2019, federal election. Under the Canadian political system, party leaders are free to unilaterally block candidates, no matter the views of voters or the rank-and-file. Without party affiliation, Weir’s political career is effectively over.
Weir’s undoing was the work of Christine Moore, an NDP MP for the Quebec riding of Abitibi-Temiscamingue. In a reply-all email responding to Weir’s expressed interest in becoming caucus chair, she wrote that she could never support him because “there are too many women (mostly employee[s]) who complained to me that you were harassing to them.” She then added: “As a woman, I would not feel comfortable to meet with you alone.”
Like Weir, Moore was not well-known—except insofar as she already had helped ruin the career of two MPs in Justin Trudeau’s Liberal party after advancing claims that they, too, were sexual harassers (a subject discussed in more detail below). And her new accusation would have come as a surprise (and still does) to anyone who knows Weir, a 37-year-old economist who once worked for the Canadian section of the United Steelworkers union.
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quillette.com

The Erin Weir debacle continues to haunt the federal New Democrats. It underscores party leader Jagmeet Singh’s seeming policy confusion and calls into question his political judgment.

It just won’t go away.

Weir is the Regina MP who was expelled from the NDP caucus last year and barred from running again for the party. His sin? He had dared to defend himself against charges of sexual harassment.

This week, the 37-year-old, lifelong New Democrat conceded that he won’t run under his party’s banner in the fall election. Nor will he run as an independent. He will sit this one out.

The Weir saga began with a 2018 email from NDP MP Christine Moore to fellow caucus members claiming that he had harassed not her but other, unnamed women. Singh almost immediately suspended Weir from caucus, while his office began a search for women willing to complain. Eventually, four were found. Three said Weir stood too close to them when talking and didn’t know when to shut up. The fourth said he had twice yelled at her over the issue of carbon tariffs — once during a policy debate and again later in an elevator.

At another time, these complaints might have been kept in perspective. But in the #MeToo frenzy of 2018, they were viewed as unforgivable political crimes. Weir was ordered to apologize to the “survivors” and take sensitivity training. He readily agreed, but with one exception. He didn’t see why he should apologize to someone for having heated words over a policy issue — even if that someone were female.

When his accuser was quoted anonymously on CBC, Weir responded to media requests for his side of the story. That, it seemed, was truly unpardonable. Singh expelled him from caucus and barred him from running for the NDP in the fall federal election.

In particular, Singh faulted him “for diminishing the finding of harassment by claiming that this was in fact a policy disagreement.” “It’s a bit Orwellian,” Weir told me in telephone interview this week. “If you try to defend yourself, it only proves that you’re guilty.”

In January, the Regina-Lewvan NDP constituency association asked Singh to reconsider and let Weir contest the nomination. Singh refused. Earlier, 68 prominent Saskatchewan New Democrats, including 13 former MPs, made a similar pitch. Singh dismissed that plea as coming from “people in a position of privilege.”

It was a comment that didn’t go over well in Saskatchewan.

The NDP will rue its treatment of Weir. It has been not only unfair but unproductive. A former economist for the Steelworkers Union, Weir has a keen understanding of the political economy of his home province.

On the issue of energy pipelines, for instance, he understands both the need to combat global warming and the dollars-and-cents reality of his constituents.

He favours construction of the controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion from Alberta’s tarsands to the Pacific Coast. In part that’s because the pipes for such a project are manufactured in Regina. In part, it’s because “to the extent that we continue to use oil,” pipelines are the safest way to move petroleum.

He says he is baffled that “the current leadership” of his party has taken no position on carbon pricing, given that this issue promises to be central to the October election.

He’s equally baffled that Singh opposes all oil pipelines but appears to favour building new natural gas pipelines in British Columbia. (In fact, the NDP leader has suggested, at different times, that he both supports and opposes a plan to pipe B.C. natural gas to the Pacific Coast for liquefaction and export to Asia.)

Many New Democrats will disagree with Weir on the pipeline question. But he’s right that the party needs to clarify its muddled position.

He’s also right that vigorous debate between those who happen to be men and those who happen to be women shouldn’t automatically be treated as sexual harassment. Such an approach does no sex any favours.

Thomas Walkom is a Toronto-based columnist covering politics. Follow him on Twitter: @tomwalkom

The  Star

There is something VERY wrong with Right Wing thinking in Canada .. it is becoming more extreme, more violent and more intolerant of democracy. Here is Saskatchewan Conservative Senator Tkachuk demanding that protesting truckers "roll over" members / supporters of the Liberal Party of Canada!! The convoy of trucks were parked near Parliament Hill and the Senator's play on words strongly alludes to killing Liberals by rolling over them with their trucks. This is totally unacceptable in our Canadian society / democracy!!!

Senator Tkachuk was the former Principal Secretary to disgraced former Conservative Saskatchewan Premier Grant Devine,

"I know you've rolled all the way here, and I'm going to ask you one more thing: I want you to roll over every Liberal left in the country," Tkachuk told convoy-supporting protestors. Cheers erupted from the crowd." 

https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2019/02/20/david-tkachuk-united-we-roll-ottawa-convoy_a_23674517/

There is NEVER room for racist attacks or racial valuations in Canadian politics! It's appropriate that the Liberal Candidate has withdrawn her candidacy in this key byelection!
Press Progress

* =typo corrected.

"During an appearance on the political show CTV Question Period, Singh appeared to be unaware of a news story that made a lot of headlines last week. Singh was asked how he would respond, if elected prime minister, to the recent statement by China’s Canadian ambassador Lu Shaye, that Canada and its Western allies’ calls for the release of two Canadians detained in China is rooted in 'white supremacy.'

“Sorry, who accused who of white supremacy?” Singh asked his interviewer. He later told the Toronto Star he didn’t hear the initial question. Host Evan Solomon repeated it in full and asked how Singh would have responded if he were prime minister. “I don’t know if there is any evidence of that suggestion,” Singh said, then quickly pivoted to talking about U.S. President Donald Trump. Global News

Everything that has ever happened in the ranks of the New Democratic Party of Canada before his arrival, seems to be of no interest to Jagmeet Singh. What a sad day for the New Democratic Party of Canada.

Every Member of the Federal NDP Caucus who remains silent on his scathing comments to Saskatchewan members is complicit with Mr. Singh's disrespect and reckless negligence in handling the affairs of the Federal Party. (I am talking to you Nathan Cullen, Charlie Angus, Guy Caron ....etc etc etc) :(

-Globe & Mail