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Liberal candidate allowed to run for re-election despite
past claims of inappropriate behaviour
Raj Saini denies making unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate comments
to young Liberal staffers
Ashley Burke · CBC News ·
Posted: Aug 31, 2021 1:14 PM ET
The Liberal Party has given southwestern Ontario candidate Raj Saini the green light to seek re-election for his third term as an MP despite a series of allegations of inappropriate behaviour toward young female staffers that spanned his six years in office, CBC News has learned.
Seven sources with knowledge of the claims described four different cases where Saini allegedly made unwanted sexual advances or inappropriate comments. Saini said he has never acted inappropriately toward staff.
We all have different ideas of what 'acting properly' includes. Some people, like Saini, or ex-NY Governor Cuomo, or Weinstein, seem to think it is quite OK to approach staff members about sex. It isn't!
A former senior staffer who filed a Canadian Human Rights Commission complaint against Saini last year alleging unwelcome advances and harassing behaviour said it's upsetting the party is allowing Saini to campaign again under the Liberal banner in Kitchener Centre. The staffer said her experience in Saini's office contributed to her mental distress, and she eventually tried to take her own life in his office in March 2020.
"That's pretty devastating to me, knowing what I have gone through and that I've raised concerns over the last more than year and a half," said the former senior staffer. "It's disturbing to me.... It's also concerning to me that it could continue to happen to other people."
And not just Saini
Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau has maintained he has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to harassment in the workplace, and that he has led a feminist government. But his party also allowed MP Marwan Tabbara to run in the 2019 federal election despite a party investigation into allegations of sexual harassment made against him in the previous mandate. Tabbara later left caucus after police charged him with break and enter, assault and criminal harassment in an unrelated case last year. Tabbara's next court appearance is scheduled for tomorrow.
Liberals allowed MP Marwan Tabbara to run in 2019 despite sexual harassment investigation
Candidates in the election had until Monday to officially register with Elections Canada. Saini submitted his nomination on Friday and posted a photo on Facebook.
Senior member of government raised concerns during Saini's 1st term
The complaints against Saini date back to the Liberals' holiday (Christmas, for everyone else) party in December 2015, which more than 2,000 people attended including Liberal MPs, staff and supporters at the Shaw Convention Centre in downtown Ottawa.
CBC News agreed not to name the sources with direct knowledge of the allegations because they weren't authorized to speak publicly about the matter or were concerned about career reprisals.
Four female staffers reported to a senior Liberal staffer that Saini, along with his friend and mentee, Tabbara, were acting inappropriately with young female staffers at the holiday party, including "touching" or being "handsy," according to multiple sources.
That information was shared with a senior member of the government who brought the concerns to the Prime Minister's Office and Justin Trudeau's chief of staff, Katie Telford, sources said. Both Tabbara and Saini remained in caucus.
Liberal Party knows nothing
The Liberal Party told CBC News in a statement "it has no record or knowledge of the matter." Tabbara's office declined to comment.
According to multiple sources, Saini later followed another junior Liberal staffer around at several functions and asked for her phone number.
In a third case, a female employee felt so uneasy with Saini calling her to his Ottawa office late at night, in some cases around 10 p.m., she brought an employee with her from another MP's office so she wasn't alone with him, according to another source. The Liberal Party also said it had no knowledge of this matter.
'I remember feeling incredibly stressed out'
A fourth case involved the former senior staffer who wrote to Saini to say she was going to take her own life in his office by overdosing on pills in March 2020, according to a written complaint to the human rights commission. She said Saini alerted mental health services, and paramedics were sent to his office to attend to her. She was admitted to hospital.
"I remember being incredibly stressed out, feeling completely helpless," the former senior staffer said. "I felt like he had shown he could do pretty much anything he wanted to do to me. I felt like there was nowhere for me to turn."
On more than one occasion, she said, Saini put his hand on her thigh while they were in the car together and said the end destination of their drive was up to her.
When the staffer asked for help with an issue at the office, Saini said he would help her if she was good for two weeks and then he winked at her, she said.
She also claims he had outbursts where he'd be yelling and push her up against a wall by the shoulders.
"In January of 2020, the MP screamed at me to burn my campaign T-shirt because I had voted at a riding association meeting to hear a candidate from an opposition party speak on environmental matters," the former senior staffer wrote in her complaint to the human rights commission. "The MP gave me a 20-minute verbally abusive lecture about loyalty, while repeatedly slamming his hands on his desk.
"The MP regularly treats me as his servant, expecting me to receive his verbal abuse and aggressions while keeping quiet. Raj Saini's attitude towards women stems from the 1800s."
No, I think it doesn't come from a certain time, but a certain place.
The source said the human rights commission said it doesn't have jurisdiction over members of Parliament so could not address her case, she said.
There is more on this story at CBC News.
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