Hypocrisy is at the crux of the Trudeau groping allegationThe prime minister and his defenders are asking for a type of consideration previously denied to othersRobyn Urback · CBC News · Posted: Jul 08, 2018 2:41 PM ET | Last Updated: July 8
https://www.cbc.ca/news/opinion/trudeau-groping-allegation-1.4738492This is about hypocrisy — not about what did or did not happen at a music festival 18 years ago.
It is about "believing women," until it happens to you; about taking all allegations of sexual misconduct seriously, except if they happen to pass some arbitrary expiration date. It is about employing an unwavering zero-tolerance policy, which, in practice, ends up showing some tolerance for the man at the top.
It is about having one set of standards for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, and another set of standards to everyone else. That's the issue. Not what did or did not happen in Creston, B.C.
For the record, there is no dispute from the two parties in question that
something happened at that music festival back when Trudeau was a 28-year-old schoolteacher, before he entered politics.
[...]
If we really want to move forward, we don't need an investigation. We need an admission that these things are complicated. That "believe women" as a blanket approach to each and every accusation sounds good in theory, but can be problematic in practice. That we can take allegations extremely seriously without having to reflexively believe them. That punishing before investigating is wrong. That there are scales of wrongdoing, and that we can make room for people to learn from their mistakes, while simultaneously showing no tolerance for those who commit the worst ones.
The prime minister is now experiencing firsthand how a one-size-fits-all approach to dealing with accusations of sexual misconduct is extremely fraught. But instead of conceding that, he is simply changing the standard to a one-size-fits-most: Everyone except the prime minister. That's the issue. It's the hypocrisy, not the act.
