| Manic! | 02-15-2019 11:19 PM |
Former B.C. premier Campbell accused of sexual assault in England
Not surprised. Quote:
The Daily Telegraph (London) is reporting that former B.C. premier Gordon Campbell is the subject of a sexual assault investigation in England.
The newspaper says Campbell is accused of groping a female London embassy worker in 2013 while he was serving as Canadian High Commissioner to Britain.
The complaint has been passed to the British Foreign Office, which is facilitating discussions between Scotland Yard and the Canadian authorities.
British government sources indicated that Canada may open its own inquiry and could waive Campbell’s diplomatic immunity if asked to do so.
A spokesman for Campbell said: “This complaint was transparently disclosed and became the subject of a full due diligence investigation at the time by the government of Canada and was found to be without merit.”
Campbell’s alleged victim, Judith Prins, accuses him of groping her before a meeting at Canada House, the country’s embassy in Trafalgar Square.
Prins, then a Canadian embassy worker, had been climbing the main staircase of Canada House to a meeting, unaware that Campbell had been following close behind her.
In a formal complaint submitted later to the embassy, Prins claimed she had been made to feel “humiliated and disrespected.” But at that moment, she simply “froze.”
“In that moment it just felt as though someone had just invaded my home or robbed me,” she said, speaking to The Daily Telegraph about the incident for the first time.
Former B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell at a press conference at his office in Vancouver Nov 4, 2010. CARMINE MARINELLI / Carmine Marinelli/QMI AGENCY
“I distinctly remember this hand went up my backside. It was significant. It wasn’t, ‘Oops, sorry I brushed you.’ It was definitely someone having a feel.”
Campbell, she said, couldn’t have reacted more differently. “I was shocked when we were in the meeting because he just carried on as if it was business as usual.
“He was just unashamedly being normal, absolutely no regard for what he had just done to me. I think that’s just where I had to file it away in my mind. I didn’t know how to process it at the time.”
The Dutch-Canadian mother-of-three, who lives in the U.K., told The Telegraph she chose to speak out in the wake of the MeToo movement.
Prins, 54, made her formal complaint in January 2014, which she resolved on terms she is prohibited from discussing. However, she passed details of the complaint to The Telegraph, describing the allegation plus several more claims of inappropriate behaviour over a seven-month period.
She also claims she was warned by Mark Fletcher, the then consul general, that three other women raised concerns about Campbell’s behaviour before she took up the role.
Prins says while the decision to waive her right to anonymity is “extremely daunting,” she believes her experiences are similar to other women who have felt unable to speak out against those in a “position of privilege, respect and power.”
Prins made a formal allegation of sexual assault to police last month.
In a statement, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Police confirmed that officers were “investigating an allegation of sexual assault that occurred in 2013.”
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shakes hands with High Commissioner Gordon Campbell after being introduced at Canada House in London on Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2015. A Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS
They added: “A 54-year-old woman contacted police on 3 January 2019 and alleged she had been sexually assaulted at an address in Grosvenor Square. No arrests have been made at this stage. Enquiries are ongoing.”
Last night a spokesman for the Canadian government said it had “zero tolerance for sexual assault and harassment,” adding: “This kind of alleged misconduct in the workplace is absolutely unacceptable.”
Campbell served as Canada’s High Commissioner to Britain from 2011 to 2016.
He was premier of British Columbia from 2001 to 2011 and also served as mayor of Vancouver from 1986 to 1993.
In January of 2003, Campbell was convicted of drunk driving while on vacation in Hawaii. The then-Liberal premier spent a night in jail and pleaded guilty to driving with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his system. He now lives in Ontario and is remarried.
In June last year, Campbell was appointed an officer of the Order of Canada, a recognition of his tireless service to Canada stretching back more than four decades.
B.C. COLLEAGUES REACT TO ALLEGATION
Veteran B.C. politicians are reacting with disbelief to the allegation of sexual assault made against the former premier.
Reached by phone Friday, Sheila Orr, who worked with Campbell for about 12 years in the B.C. Liberal party and as an MLA, said she knows him well and never saw him behave inappropriately with anyone during that time.
“Gordon Campbell is not a warm and fuzzy person, but under no circumstances have I ever seen him groping anybody,” she said.
Orr said she did not wish to diminish Prins’s allegation and only wanted to speak about her personal experience working with Campbell.
“Gordon Campbell was such a cold fish, I could never imagine him groping anybody,” she said.
Sam Sullivan, who was mayor of Vancouver from 2005 to 2008, said that while it is important to take any sexual assault allegation seriously, the groping claim made against Campbell described behaviour “completely out of character” for him.
“He’s a good man; he’s never had any intimation about anything like that,” he said. “I don’t know what to say other than that. He’s an amazing person who’s done so much.”
Sullivan said that when he was mayor, he would hear chatter about alleged misconduct, but Campbell’s name never came up. He declined to repeat those allegations.
Former MLA Ida Chong, who worked with Campbell in various capacities for 15 years, said he never made any “untoward advances” to her.
“He showed nothing but respect around me,” she said.
She said Campbell would be warm with caucus colleagues during difficult times, such as the loss of a family member, but never offered anything more than a hug. He never touched anyone inappropriately, to her knowledge.
“Some of us went through terrible traumas,” she said. “He was nothing but comforting.”
Carole Taylor, a former Liberal cabinet minister, said she hadn’t heard of the allegation before she was contacted by Postmedia. She and Campbell had a friendly, professional relationship, she said.
“I never had any experience or knowledge of that with Gordon,” she said.
Martyn Brown, Campbell’s longtime former chief of staff, said he hadn’t heard about the allegation or read the Telegraph story, and was shocked by the report.
“In my 13 years of working for him, never did I ever experience anything like this with him.”
— With files from Nick Eagland and Scott Brown
| https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...ult-in-england |
