Guilty, whether proven innocent or not?
Late last week, allegations of sexual misconduct were levied against Ontario Progressive Conservative leader Patrick Brown when two anonymous women came forward with accusations of inappropriate behaviour.
Both women state the misconduct took place a while ago, one being about 10 years ago and the other around five. The women were only 18 and 19 at the time of the alleged incidents, one of them describing Brown as an “old, single politician preying on young girls.” Based on these recounts of the alleged incidents, both women had been drinking, and they distinctly remember Brown being sober While neither were forced into unwanted sexual acts, both stated that Brown used his position of power to lure them into his bedroom. Notably however, when asked to stop, Brown stopped. No charges have been laid, and Brown “categorically denies” the allegations. Nevertheless, he announced his resignation as leader last week on Jan. 25.
In a press conference following his resignation, Brown stated, “I can’t speculate on the motive of my accusers, I can only say that what they are saying is categorically untrue.” Brown explained that he intends to fight these allegations in court in the hopes that he can clear his name once and for all.
As we’ve seen innumerable times in the media recently, the accused parties deny the allegations, but more often than not, they never try to defend themselves in court. Is it because they are in fact guilty, or is it because no matter what they do, their reputation is already ruined? From this point forward, whether the allegations are true or not, Patrick Brown will always be the former PC leader with a sex scandal. Is it fair that Patrick Brown’s political career is likely over, despite the fact that these women haven’t revealed their identities, and nothing has been proven in court? I’m a feminist as much as the next 21-year-old, Liberal-thinking woman, and for the sake of full disclosure, I am not a Conservative, but I can’t help but feel a teeny, tiny bit of sympathy for Brown. While a wrongly-accused assaulter could file for defamation if they wanted to, all that would be likely to come out of the suit is more negative press coverage. I’m not saying Brown is innocent. If history is any indication, he probably isn’t. But without any charges being laid, and therefore no real investigation into the allegations, we’ll likely never know for certain.
In another interesting turn of events, Conservative MPP Lisa MacLeod has revealed that she heard rumblings of inappropriate behaviour by Brown, and even took her concerns to a party volunteer who dismissed them. The volunteer told MacLeod that the rumours were too vague to act on, and that if she was serious about her concerns, she should take them to caucus. Evidently, she did not. MacLeod explained that she didn’t trust Brown’s staff enough to deal with the rumours seriously, so she chose to keep them to herself.
Sitting at my desk looking at this situation from the outside, I want to yell at MacLeod for not trying harder to bring these rumours to the forefront. But realistically, I know that being a woman in politics is hard enough without trying to substantiate rumours of sexual misconduct against your “boss.”
Is it fair then to say that the Progressive Conservatives dismissed allegations of sexual assault? The opposing parties are likely going to frame it that way, whether or not that is indeed what happened. New Democratic Party leader Andrea Horwath said Thursday that, “Today’s indication that the PC party may have dismissed similar concerns about their leader as ‘unfounded’ is deeply troubling, and raises serious questions. For too long, women that have come forward have been systematically ignored and undermined by organizations that protect men in positions of power.”
So now I see two major issues with the way sexual misconduct allegations are handled in the public eye. Firstly, as Horwath stated, there is something systemic within organizations that protect men in positions of power, and make it nearly impossible for women to come forward. The second issue, in my opinion, is that should someone ever be falsely accused of this kind of behaviour, there is nearly nothing they can do to defend themselves. Once the floodgates have opened, it’s all over — their career, their reputation, and probably their personal relationships.
Photo courtesy of CTV News via CC0