Former Liberal calls out Trudeau over mishandling of sexual misconduct allegations

A former staffer to the Trudeau Liberals called out the party for "victim blaming" on allegations towards incumbent MP Raj Saini, who is being accused of inappropriate behaviour towards female staffers.

"[I am] a staunch believer in protecting women against [people] like Raj," said Sharan Kaur. "I am beyond disappointed by how the PMO [and] party has handled this."

Seven sources with knowledge of the claims divulged four different instances of Saini allegedly making unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate comments, reported Yahoo News.

Saini said he never acted inappropriately toward staff.

"I’m embarrassed of my team today," added Kaur, concluding with #ibelieveher.

Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and the NDP called out the Trudeau Liberals publicly, with the latter requesting Saini be dropped as a candidate.

"Justin Trudeau did what he has done so many times before — he stood by his man," said NDP candidate Lindsay Mathyssen during a Wednesday press conference. "By refusing to live up to his words [by removing] Raj Saini as a Liberal candidate, Mr. Trudeau is sending a loud, clear and chilling message to women across Canada."

Mathyssen added that O'Toole did the right thing by believing the woman alleging sexual misconduct by Conservative candidate Troy Myers and subsequently dropping him as a candidate.

O'Toole said the Liberals' handling of sexual misconduct allegations in the Canadian Armed Forces and within its caucus reflects a culture problem within the party.

"These are very serious allegations and troubling allegations,” he said. “We need to make sure Parliament Hill is a place where people can come to serve their country, work in politics free from allegations and intimidation and workplace incidents.”

"I hope to hear a serious response from the prime minister and his team on how this type of coverup took place," added O’Toole.

According to multiple sources, four female staffers told a senior Liberal staffer that Saini — along with former Liberal MP Marwan Tabbara — acted inappropriately by "touching" or being "handsy" with young female staffers at the Liberals' 2015 holiday party.

Tabbara was allowed to run in the 2019 federal election despite a party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against him in the previous mandate. He left caucus after police charged him with break and enter, assault and criminal harassment in an unrelated case in June 2020.

The Trudeau Liberals said in a statement that "it has no record or knowledge of the matter." However, the sources said that information was divulged with a senior government official, who raised the concerns to the PMO and Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford.

A former senior staffer filed a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint against Saini alleging unwelcome advances and harassing behaviour.

Saini also supposedly followed another junior Liberal staffer around at several functions and asked for her phone number.

In a third case, a female employee reported she felt very uneasy about Saini calling her to his Ottawa office late at night and brought an employee with her from another MP's office so she wasn't alone with him, according to another source.

Trudeau said the party is following an independent process to review the claims.

"This is something that Canadians expect. We make sure that there are proper, rigorous processes that everyone gets to go through when they come forward with concerns and allegations," he said Wednesday.

"In this case, Mr. Saini has shared details about the multiple processes that have gone through over the past many months and the efforts that have been made to demonstrate we are taking seriously every single concern that is raised."