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Bill Kelly: Passing a law won’t change misogynist mindsets

Sport and Disabilities Minister Kent Hehr is shown during Question Period in the House of Commons in Ottawa, Thursday, December 7, 2017. Hehr is out of the federal cabinet _ at least for now _ after being accused of making inappropriate sexual remarks while in provincial politics a decade ago. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Fred Chartrand

Prime Minister Trudeau says that sexual misconduct is an epidemic on Parliament Hill, and there seems to be a boatload of evidence to support that claim.

But passing a bill to outlaw such misogynist practices isn’t going to make the problem go away.

Both the prime minister and Opposition Leader Andrew Scheer are properly indignant about the accusations levelled at their caucus members, but both leaders need to address some critical questions.

READ MORE: Confidentiality a factor on whether reports into alleged sexual misconduct by MPs should be public: Trudeau

Why is former cabinet minister Kent Hehr still in the Liberal caucus, when other Liberal members, facing similar sexual misconduct accusations, were dumped?

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And why was Conservative Rick Dykstra allowed to run for re-election in the last federal election while he was being investigated for inappropriate behaviour?

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READ MORE: Andrew Scheer orders probe into why Rick Dykstra was allowed to run despite misconduct allegations

Female MPs and staff are now speaking out about years of inappropriate behaviour, yet party officials tell us that they had no idea this kind of behaviour was going on.

Just how naive do they think we are?

Journalists and political pundits tell us that rumours about MPs’ behaviour have been floating around for years and no one paid much attention to it.

Clearly, the Parliament Hill workplace is like so many other workplaces, where too many people turn a blind eye to inappropriate behaviour.

That has to stop and it’s up to our political leaders to make sure that it does.

Bill Kelly is the host of Bill Kelly Show on AM 900 CHML and a commentator for Global News

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