WATCH: Two Liberal MPs have been suspended because of allegations of misconduct. Conservative MP Peter Goldring offered some advice to avoid such accusations, saying he wears video recording equipment and others should do the same. Chief Political Correspondent Tom Clark discusses.
Update: Conservative MP Peter Goldring issued a retraction Wednesday night to a press release sent earlier in the day through the press gallery in response to the ongoing harassment allegations on Parliament Hill.
“Earlier today I issued a press release that I now recognize was completely inappropriate. I retract that press release unconditionally and deeply regret it.”
Goldring is the MP who wants to annex Turks and Caicos.
We’ll let the statement speak for itself, but let’s just say it involves Scrabble at 2 a.m., body-worn video recording equipment, and the word “besmirchment.”
Calls to Goldring’s office were not immediately returned. He has said he will not seek re-election in 2015.
A spokesman for the Prime Minister’s Office had this to say: “Mr. Goldring’s comments reflect his own personal position.”
Here is the full statement:
Warning: Consorting Without Protection Is Risky
OTTAWA – Peter Goldring, Member of Parliament for Edmonton East, today stated that MPs that consort with others should avail themselves of readily available risk protection for their health and integrity, to prevent besmirchment when encounters run awry.
“It will not be good enough to simply say that your intentions were honourable and you were just inviting a colleague to your apartment at two in the morning to play a game of Scrabble at the end of a day of playing sports and drinking. MPs must learn, as I have from encounters with authority figures in the past, that all do not tell the truth. I now wear ‘protection’ in the form of body-worn video recording equipment. I suggest that others do so too, particularly because some accusers hide behind a shield of supposed credibility which many times is not, and sometimes even hide behind a cloak of anonymity, which conceals their shameful indiscretion and complicity.”
Mr. Goldring made the statement in the wake of the unproven harassment allegations against two Liberal MPs by two NDP MPs, one of whom has spoken to the media while insisting her name not be published. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau suspended the accused from caucus without due process.
Comments