Feature, Musings —06.27.2020 03:53 PM
—I wish I had never, ever supported Kristin Raworth
More reasons why, seen in Licia Corbella’s important column today, found here.
My post on Raworth, which you should also read, is here.
In January 2018, an Alberta woman said on Twitter that 10 years earlier, while working at the Alberta legislature — when Hehr was an MLA for the opposition Alberta Liberals between the years of 2008 and 2015 — he called her “yummy” while in an elevator together.She said he made similar remarks or tried to brush up against her in later encounters.The feeding frenzy on Twitter by many thousands of people was swift and near-unanimous. The next day he resigned from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet as sport and disabilities minister.
The Prime Minister’s Office commissioned an independent investigation, which found the woman’s claims were legitimate, but details of the review were kept under wraps by the PMO due to privacy concerns — even though the accuser wanted them made public.
Hehr said then and maintains today that he doesn’t recall meeting the woman at the legislature or calling her or anyone else “yummy” — ever...
It’s vital to point out that Hehr has zero feeling in his hands or forearms. He relies on his shoulder muscles to move his arms and can’t fully control where his arms end up. Indeed, Hehr has received third-degree burns to his hands from a hot cup of coffee offered to him by a well-meaning person — feeling nothing as layers of skin peeled away, requiring medical treatment.
At the age of 21, on Oct. 3, 1991, Hehr, a bystander, was shot in a drive-by shooting in Calgary. The resulting spinal cord injury rendered him a quadriplegic, with no feeling below his breastbone.
In Hehr’s Facebook post, which has received more than 2,500 likes, 610 overwhelmingly positive comments and 346 shares, he writes that what he went through came into “sharp focus” on April 30 “when the woman who accused me of sexual harassment in 2018 apologized for making libellous statements about Canadian public figure Warren Kinsella.” She made false claims, was forced to retract her statements, apologize and pay his legal bills. “Kinsella wrote an article that provided some context for all of this …. Here’s how he closed it: ‘ … to Kent Hehr, wherever you are: I now wonder whether you deserved better. I wonder that a lot.’”
Yet more proof that no one should lose their livelihood, or have their reputation destroyed, merely on the basis of an allegation. We are a nation of laws, and the principle of innocent until proven guilty. This should apply no matter how heinous the crime, or how trendy the shaming.
It also shouldn’t matter whether the falsely-accused person has other challenges. The fact Hehr has a disability is certainly a terrible tragedy, but it has zero relevance to his innocence or guilt (or presumption thereof) for sexual harassment.
“We must believe all women.”
Is this the approved opinion, or not? It’s getting hard to keep up.