OTTAWA – Federal Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer says if allegations of sexual assault were levelled against candidates for his party today, they wouldn’t be allowed to run.
But Scheer says he can’t speak to a decision made by party officials during the 2015 campaign to allow Ontario MP Rick Dykstra to remain on the ballot despite knowing he had been accused of assault.
That the party was aware of an allegation of sexual assault against Dykstra came to light in a report by Maclean’s magazine.
Scheer says he can’t comment on that decision but if the party was made aware of such an allegation today, the individual would be removed as a candidate until an investigation was completed.
Scheer calls the allegations about Dykstra disturbing and says there’s no place for such conduct in the political system.
Dykstra has not returned a request for comment on the allegations; he lost his seat in the 2015 election and went on to become president of the
Ontario Progressive Conservative Party, a position from which he resigned over the weekend just ahead of the Maclean’s story publication.