Two women who have accused Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown of sexual misconduct were initially hesitant to speak out, CTV News’ senior political correspondent Glen McGregor says.
Speaking to CP24 on Thursday morning, McGregor, who was the first to report on the allegations, said the women were not “shopping their stories around” to media outlets.
“They didn’t come to us. We had to go to considerable lengths to reach them and convince them that they should tell their story and that they’d be protected. Then we had to do a lot of leg work to confirm details in their story, verify a lot of things that they had said,” McGregor noted.
On Wednesday night, CTV News reported that two women, who have not been identified, came forward with allegations of sexual misconduct.
Brown, who is not facing any criminal charges in connection with the accusations, has denied all allegations against him and has vowed to clear his name.
The alleged incidents, according to CTV News, occurred when Brown was a federal Member of Parliament and took place at his home in Barrie.
In the story, CTV News said one of the women, who is now 29, said she was still in high school when she was asked to perform oral sex.
CTV News reported that the second woman said she was a university student and was employed at Brown’s constituency office in Barrie when she said she was allegedly sexually assaulted in his home.
Both women, according to CTV News, said they had been drinking at the time of the alleged incidents and Brown had not consumed any alcohol.
The explosive allegations came out late Wednesday night, prompting Brown to call an impromptu press conference at Queen’s Park, where he denied any wrongdoing.
Brown, who was visibly emotional at the news conference, called the allegations "troubling” and “false,” adding that he could not “speculate on the motive” of the women making the accusations.
Hours later, Brown announced that he would be resigning from his position as leader but would continue to work as an MPP.
“These allegations are false and have been difficult to hear,” Brown said in a written statement released early Thursday morning.
“However, defeating Kathleen Wynne in 2018 is more important than one individual. For this reason, after consulting with caucus, friends and family I have decided to step down as Leader of the Ontario PC Party.”
McGregor was quick to point out that none of the allegations against Brown have been proven in court.
“Neither of the women who are involved in bringing this forward to CTV ever filed complaints with the police or employers or anything like that. They never took any civil action,” he said. “It’s never been tested in court. These allegations have never gone before a judge or jury or anything like that so they are simply that, allegations, at this point, which he (Brown), as you heard, emphatically denies.”
McGregor said rumours have long been circulating about sexual harassment on Parliament Hill.
“Parliament Hill is a situation where you have, by definition, a lot of middle age men and a lot of young women staff,” he said.
“You have this basic built-in power imbalance and you have up here a lot of events. Pretty much any day of the week when the house is sitting, you can go somewhere and there (are) parties with MPs and free wine flowing all the time. So it’s a problematic situation.”
