Another woman has stepped forward with allegations of sexual misconduct against Canadian musician Jacob Hoggard, lead singer of Hedley.
On Wednesday, Katie Summers from Calgary radio show AMP Mornings with Katie and Ed at 90.3 AMP shared an experience she said happened about seven years ago when Hoggard was a guest at the station.
READ MORE: Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard sorry for ‘reckless’ treatment of women, plans to step away from career
“This person who sings in this band made a really inappropriate comment to me and also touched me inappropriately,” Summers said in a video posted to Twitter on Wednesday morning. “And that person was Jacob Hoggard from Hedley.
“I’m definitely not saying he raped somebody or did any of the things he’s being accused of, but this is what he did to me.”
WATCH: Calgary radio host accuses Hedley’s Jacob Hoggard of sexual misconduct.
Summers said at the time, she wasn’t ready to talk about the experience, suggesting she didn’t want to be a whistleblower or “ruin someone’s career.”
“In that moment, I really just chalked it up to obnoxious behaviour.”
Summers said she doesn’t believe Hoggard would remember the incident.
“We’re talking about a guy who does a million interviews, at a million radio stations, but I remember it.”
Summers said she’d been star struck, asked to be part of a photo op with four or five other people in the room, and told Hoggard she’d been a fan for a long time. She said he replied:
“’Oh cool, well maybe if you’re lucky I’ll let you come out into the back alley with me and’–I don’t want to say it because it’s graphic–but he basically said I could give him oral sex, if I was lucky.
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“We took a photo and in that moment, I was like, ‘What?’”
Summers said he then “gave my butt a quick little slap and out the door he went.”
Global News spoke to one of the witnesses Summers says was in the room at the time. That witness said he saw Hoggard grab Summers’ buttocks, but does not remember the specific comment that was made.
Watch below: The latest on Hedley
The host said she “didn’t really think much about it after” and that it didn’t make her a different person. She said she met him multiple times since but there was no other inappropriate behaviour.
Summers said she didn’t say anything at the time because she was scared she was going to lose her job.
“I’d been there for three months. I wasn’t going to be the person who accused somebody famous of something so terrible and really just in my mind, I minimalized it so much. That was just how I processed it; just how I dealt with the situation.”
READ MORE: Hedley’s management drops band amid sexual misconduct allegations
She added she wants to encourage people to share experiences and not fear consequences.
“If this has happened to you in any kind of capacity, and you want to talk about it, talk about it. If you don’t want to talk about it–you’re not ready–don’t talk about it.”
Earlier this week, Hoggard denied sexual assault allegations levelled by an Ottawa woman.
Hoggard’s lawyer released a statement that said, “At no time did Jacob act badly or do anything without her consent.”
Hedley has been dropped by their management team, tour openers and dozens of radio stations, but some concert-goers say they are standing by Hedley as the pop-rockers continue to perform across the country in the wake of sexual misconduct allegations they have denied.
Global News has requested a comment from Hoggard’s lawyer related to Summers’ claims and will update our coverage upon hearing back.
Chalking it up to ‘obnoxious behaviour’
University of Calgary masculinities research professor Michael Kehler weighed in on how common it is for people to categorize such incidents as “obnoxious behaviour.”
“Men are oftentimes part of a culture of complacency in which we have allowed ‘obnoxious’ boyish, laddish behaviour to go unquestioned,” Kehler wrote in an email to Global News. “And in fact, we have accepted some machismo womanizing as simply part of being a real man. Many men are unsure how to speak against the womanizing, the sexual assaults.”
Kehler suggested it’s not “normal” to minimize assaults, inappropriate sexual behaviours or practices, but added “these ways of being men have been ‘normalized.’”
“In North America, the scripts of masculinity, the codes of masculinity, have gone unquestioned and indeed they have been protected among men—hence the silence that keeps men’s behaviour as ‘natural.’”
If you or someone you know is experiencing abuse or is involved in an abusive situation, please visit the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime for help. They are also reachable toll-free at 1-877-232-2610.
With files from Global News
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