{"id":161026,"date":"2018-04-21T23:16:53","date_gmt":"2018-04-22T03:16:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=161026"},"modified":"2018-04-21T23:16:53","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T03:16:53","slug":"trudeau-hehr-attend-party-training-session-on-sexual-harassment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/04\/21\/trudeau-hehr-attend-party-training-session-on-sexual-harassment\/","title":{"rendered":"Trudeau, Hehr attend party training session on sexual harassment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"FILE:<\/a>
FILE: Justin Trudeau and Kent Hehr \u2014 a former minister who resigned from the prime minister’s cabinet over allegations of inappropriate conduct with women \u2014 were among the Liberals who attended a sexual harassment training session Saturday. (Photo<\/a>: Justin Trudeau\/Facebook<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

HALIFAX \u2014 Justin\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0and Kent Hehr \u2014 a former minister who resigned from the prime minister’s cabinet over allegations of inappropriate conduct with women \u2014 were among the Liberals who attended a sexual harassment training session Saturday.<\/p>\n

The hour-long session, which was closed to the media, marked the first time the ruling party has broached the issue of harassment at one of its national conventions.<\/p>\n

Trudeau\u00a0emerged to say the session was \u201ca great ongoing part of an important conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s not one group attending one session that’s going to make all the difference but it’s a step further in the right direction and I’m glad we’re having this conversation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s an ongoing challenge that we all know we have to continue to work on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hehr also called it \u201can excellent session.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt talked about safe workplaces, how to intervene, how we need to lead by example and how we go forward,\u201d the Calgary MP said.<\/p>\n

Hehr resigned in January as minister of sports and disabilities, pending an investigation into a complaint that he had made inappropriate sexual remarks to women during his time as an MLA in Alberta, including telling the complainant she looked \u201cyummy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other complaints subsequently emerged, including an allegation that Hehr had groped a young female staffer on Parliament Hill.<\/p>\n

Hehr would not comment Saturday on the status of the investigation.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a process in place and we have to let that process unfold and due process to occur and the like,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Asked if anything he heard during the training session that made him think some past behaviour may have been inappropriate, Hehr said: \u201cWe always have opportunities to learn in life … Of course, we always go forward to try to better ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that he’s attended similar sessions in the past.<\/p>\n

Four MPs have resigned or been kicked out of the Liberal caucus over alleged sexual misconduct since\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0became party leader in 2013 \u2014 including another Calgary MP, Darshan Kang.<\/p>\n

Trudeau, who has generally taken a zero-tolerance approach to harassment, has faced questions about why Hehr has been allowed to stay in caucus.<\/p>\n

He’s said \u201cevery case will be different\u201d and has acknowledged that he, like other political leaders, is struggling to figure out the best way to deal with allegations while still allowing due process for those accused.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don’t have a rule book that’s been handed down to me from Wilfrid Laurier as leader of the Liberal party on how to handle these situations,\u201d\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0said in January.<\/p>\n

Nova Scotia Liberal MP Darren Fisher, who attended Saturday’s session, said he’s personally seen no evidence of sexual harassment in the Liberal party but he’s heard about incidents of insensitive comments, such as someone calling a woman \u201clittle lady.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said it was \u201ca good decision for everyone\u201d to attend and had no problem with Hehr being in attendance.<\/p>\n

Manitoba MP Dan Vandal said the fact that the party held the session \u201csays that we’re very aware of the situation, we’re sensitive to the whole issue of creating safe spaces and it’s not something we take lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

HALIFAX \u2014 Justin\u00a0Trudeau\u00a0and Kent Hehr \u2014 a former minister who resigned from the prime minister’s cabinet over allegations of inappropriate …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":148317,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[3070,11626,50069,27723],"class_list":["post-161026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","tag-justin-trudeau","tag-kent-hehr","tag-party-training-session","tag-sexual-harassment","mauthors-joan-bryden","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=161026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/161026\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148317"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=161026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=161026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=161026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}