{"id":188863,"date":"2018-11-08T22:26:36","date_gmt":"2018-11-09T03:26:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=188863"},"modified":"2018-11-08T22:26:36","modified_gmt":"2018-11-09T03:26:36","slug":"inappropriate-comments-stem-outdated-sense-humour-manitoba-politician","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/11\/08\/inappropriate-comments-stem-outdated-sense-humour-manitoba-politician\/","title":{"rendered":"Inappropriate comments stem from outdated sense of humour: Manitoba politician"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cPeople who know me best can verify I have never been accused of anything remotely resembling sexual harassment,\u201d Graydon said at a news conference. (File Photo<\/a>: @CliffGraydonMLA\/Twitter<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WINNIPEG \u2014 A Manitoba legislature member who was booted from the governing Progressive Conservative caucus over inappropriate remarks said Thursday he is not a sexual harasser, but later admitted some of his comments could be construed as harassment.<\/p>\n

Cliff Graydon, 72, described himself as a product of a bygone era as he answered questions for the first time since being ejected by the Tories last month.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople who know me best can verify I have never been accused of anything remotely resembling sexual harassment,\u201d Graydon said at a news conference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI admit I’m guilty of having of having a bad sense of humour and sincerely apologize to those who have been offended by my inconsiderate jokes. I have grown up in a different era and realize some people today are much more sensitive to inappropriate humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graydon was kicked out of caucus last month after media reports he invited two junior staff members to sit on his lap and invited one to lick food off his face. Caucus chair Wayne Ewasko said Graydon had exhibited a \u201cpattern of inappropriate behaviour,\u201d but would not reveal details.<\/p>\n

Graydon said Thursday he has no memory of asking anyone to lick his face and feels the lap incidents were misreported.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have never asked anyone to sit on my lap \u2014 that’s a media term. The comment was ‘You can sit on my knee or I can get you a chair’.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graydon was asked whether he considers that statement harassment.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn’t at the time, no. But apparently \u2014 today \u2014 yes it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graydon said his inappropriate actions never involved touching, but there may have been many more cases of verbal comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere could be many in my past. I have no idea, with my sense of humour.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graydon said he will sit as an Independent and will not run for re-election in 2020.<\/p>\n

Premier Brian Pallister said Graydon has handled the situation with \u201cgrace.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only say that I believe that he’s responded in a reasonable way and he’s apologized, that he’s taken any actions that he felt were necessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Graydon was first elected in 2007 and represents the Emerson constituency \u2014 an area where asylum-seekers have been crossing the United States border on foot to gain entry into Canada.<\/p>\n

Graydon stirred up controversy last winter when he called the asylum-seekers \u201ca drain on society.\u201d He also retweeted other people’s posts that called Prime Minister Justin Trudeau a traitor, a scumbag and a disgrace.<\/p>\n

Graydon apologized at the time, deleted the tweets and agreed to undergo sensitivity training, the details of which were never made public.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned a lot from my sensitivity training,\u201d Graydon said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut like I said, I came from a different era and it does take time to change. You do slip sometimes.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG \u2014 A Manitoba legislature member who was booted from the governing Progressive Conservative caucus over inappropriate remarks said Thursday …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":186573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188863","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-steve-lambert","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188863","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/186573"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}