More than eight months after the investigation into MP Kent Hehr’s improper conduct in the Alberta legislature concluded, neither of Hehr’s accusers nor Hehr himself have seen the entirety of the resulting report.
The Prime Minister’s Office, which commissioned law firm Rubin Thomlinson LLP to conduct the third-party investigation, told Global News on Friday the report isn’t being released to either party because of privacy concerns.
“The findings of the investigation are not made public due to privacy considerations and to protect the integrity of the process,” the PMO said in a statement.
But Kristin Raworth and the other unnamed female accuser both say they are willing to relinquish their privacy in order to see all of the investigator’s findings.
LISTEN: Kristin Raworth joins Rob Breakenridge to discuss why she wants to see the Kent Hehr conduct report
“Both of us have made it clear that we’re willing to waive our privacy concerns in order to get a chance to see the report,” Raworth told Rob Breakenridge on Global News Radio 770 CHQR.
“According to the PMO, it’s around the witnesses involved. There’s ways of redacting that, there’s ways of providing us with a report that wouldn’t name any of the other people involved,” she said.
Hehr told Global News in a Friday statement that he was not involved with the decision to withhold the report.
The Calgary-Centre Liberal MP also said he hasn’t seen the full report.
On June 6, 2018, Hehr posted a statement saying the report had concluded and that he remains a member of the Liberal caucus but not a cabinet member. Hehr also said he tried to “make amends” to those he offended.
In light of the allegations of the MP making sexually-suggestive comments and inappropriate touching, Hehr and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also attended a sexual harassment training session.
Hehr later announced he would seek re-election in the 2019 federal election.
At the time of the report’s completion, Hehr and Raworth were told the conclusions of the third-party investigation.
But more than a year after coming forward with the original allegations, Raworth says the process she went through in the investigations — including the lack of access to the full report — leaves much to be desired in the “Me Too” era.
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“When we talk about sexual harassment allegations and reports, there needs to be transparency and there needs to be respect for people who come forward in this process,” she said.
“For myself, I have a right to see the report that’s about me. I have the right to be able to read what was said about me and about my experiences.
“And for the other woman involved, she has the right to understand what happened and why this has happened in the way that it did for her.”
Raworth said her concern goes beyond just her and her co-accuser to include any other survivors of sexual harassment in the political sphere.
“We need to offer those transparencies to people who go through these processes because, otherwise, how can we trust the process in its entirety if we don’t even know what the process looks like?”
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