Bloc Quebecois Leader Yves-Francois Blanchet says he's incapable of the kind of sexual misconduct alleged against him in an anonymous Facebook post.
In a Sunday news conference on Parliament Hill, Blanchet said the claim that he tried to force himself on a woman in the washroom of a Montreal bar in 1999, when he was a manager in the music business, does a disservice to real victims of sexual assault.
He called facing such allegations a form of hell and demanded the page where the allegation was posted retract it.
"There is no victim," he said in French. "I have no idea where this comes from. I have no idea what the intention was behind these allegations."
He said the general circumstances described in the allegation, that Blanchet was out at particular bars with Quebec artists, are plausible but the details are false.
Blanchet had already denied the allegations categorically in a written statement, in which he urged anyone with a real complaint to take it to the police. He said Sunday he wanted to speak directly to his friends and constituents, as do other Bloc MPs.
Those MPs are standing behind their leader. All 31 members of the BQ caucus have their names on a statement issued Sunday.
"We are convinced that the anonymous allegations made against him are false and we support him without hesitation," the statement says in French.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 19, 2020.
Comments
Another miserable case of she-said, he-said, fueling the divisive and futile arguments over sexual assault
Whether or not this case will ever be proven one way or another, apparently spontaneous anonymous claims lacking any kind of objective verification are, at best highly suspect.
With all due respect to genuine victims of sexual assault, however traumatised they may be, one of their first steps must be at the least, a properly recorded complaint to the rape crisis agency(ies). Accompanied by an advocate, the complainant should then make a formal complaint to the police, and demand to have a signed copy of the report as proof of his/her allegations.
This puts police on notice that burying the report is not an option.
If at all possible the complainant should demand that a test for foregin DNA and documentation of any injuries be done by qualified medical personnel.
Then, there can be no doubt of the veracity of the allegation. Without these proofs, even a non-anonymous complaint can be dismissed.
Survivors of rape may be traumatised and it is certainly natural. However, it is more important that they be enraged by the assault.
Parents and sex educators who fail to cover this issue with students of both sexes and especially the vulnerable non-gender conforming, are almost criminally negligent. Given the odds against an individual escaping being victimized in the current socially disfunctional atmosphere, every individual should be armed with the necessary information on how to handle, and survive sexual assault.
Every agency with any responsibility for protecting the personal safety of human beings should have at the ready a full and complete protocol for applying both emotional and legal succor to those assaulted. And every human being should be prepared to defend the rights of assaulted individuals without blaming or stigmatising - unless or until, the complainant is proven to be guilty of falsification.