“The standard applies to everyone,” Justin Trudeau said in February.

He was speaking about dealing with claims of sexual harassment and assault by members of Parliament. He was asked specifically if the same rules applied to him and he said yes.

Well by his own standard then, Trudeau must face investigation by the Liberal caucus.

By now you’ve likely heard about an editorial from a British Columbia newspaper in 2000 that accused Trudeau of groping one of their reporters.

The story sat idle for years in the Creston Valley Advance until it reappeared on social media last week.

In August of 2000, Trudeau was in Creston for a music festival when he allegedly groped the young journalist. The newspaper ran an editorial — titled “Open eyes” — chastising Trudeau for his alleged actions.

“It’s not a rare incident to have a young reporter, especially a female working for a small community newspaper, be considered an underling to their ‘more predominant’ associates and blatantly disrespected because of it,” the editorial said.

“But shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?” it said.

“Didn’t he learn through his vast experiences in public life, that groping a strange young woman isn’t in the handbook of proper etiquette regardless of who she is, what her business is, or where they are.”

Trudeau apparently offered an bizarre apology for inappropriately “handling” the reporter while she was on assignment for the Advance.

“If I had known you were reporting for a national paper, I never would have been so forward,” the paper reported Trudeau saying.

So, if the accusations are true, then apparently groping local reporters is ok — just not those national ones, though it turned out she was also covering Trudeau for the National Post and the Vancouver Sun.

Now thanks to social media, this story has been picked up around the world including liberal publications like Buzzfeed and the New York Times.

Trudeau’s response, through his office is that he doesn’t remember.

“He remembers being in Creston for the Avalanche Foundation,” spokesman Matt Pascuzzo told the Sun, “But he doesn’t think he had any negative interactions there.”

Of course by Trudeau’s own standards, none of this should matter.

Whether he remembers or not shouldn’t matter.

An accusation was made against him and as he has said, the woman making the accusation must be believed.

“When women speak up it is our duty to listen to them and believe them,” Trudeau said earlier this year as his government tabled a bill on workplace harassment.

Trudeau’s defenders will point out that this was 18 years ago.

Again, by his standard, that doesn’t matter.

“There is no context in which someone doesn’t have responsibility for things they have done in the past,” Trudeau told the CBC in very serious tones in a sit down interview.

In that February interview, Trudeau talked about how long he has been involved in this issue. He boasted of being one of the first male facilitators at the sexual assault centre run by the McGill students’ society.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press Sean Kilpatrick / THE CANADIAN PRESS
He spoke of leading difficult conversations around, “… consent, communications, accountability, power dynamics.”

Well this Creston Valley Advance editorial would suggest otherwise.

Trudeau was 28 at the time of this incident — well past his McGill days and a fully grown adult.

Yet asked in February if any of his actions in the past could even have been misconstrued, he said no.

“I’ve been very, very careful all my life to be thoughtful, to be respectful of people’s space and people’s headspace as well,” Trudeau said.

Here’s the problem for Justin Trudeau. He has built his image around being a feminist. He has said time and again women must be supported and believed. And he has said the standard must apply to him even if the allegations are very old.

Trudeau has suspended MPs from their official duties for similar allegations. He has even kicked MPs out of the Liberal caucus over such claims.

He can’t dismiss this now with a comment from his spokesman saying he doesn’t remember “…any negative interactions.”

Either he shows the same standard applies to all MPs in his party or he shows himself to be a hypocrite that is above the standard he holds everyone else to.
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press