Woman who accused Trudeau of groping issues statement

Marina Pitofsky USA TODAY

Published 6:35 p.m. UTC Jul 7, 2018

The woman who accused Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of groping her released a statement about the 2000 incident on Friday.

"I issue this statement reluctantly, in response to mounting media pressure to confirm that I was the reporter who was the subject of the Open Eyes editorial, published in the Creston Valley Advance," Rose Knight said, a former journalist for the Creston Valley Advance, a local newspaper in Canada. "The incident referred to in the editorial did occur, as reported. Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day."

In her statement, given to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Knight referenced an editorial published in the Advance after the incident. The column detailed Trudeau and Knight's interaction and criticized Trudeau and his father, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

The editorial said Trudeau apologized the next day for "inappropriately handling the reporter while she was on assignment."

The column gained traction after it was tweeted by University of Calgary law professor and author Warren Kinsella in June.

Knight also cited privacy concerns for herself and her family in her statement and declined to comment any further on the incident.

"The debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement," Knight said.

A former co-worker of Knight's described her reaction to the incident to the CBC on Friday. Valerie Bourne was the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance at the time of the incident and said Knight was "unsettled."

"My recollections of the conversation were that she came to me because she was unsettled by it. She didn't like what had happened," Bourne said. "She wasn't sure how she should proceed with it because, of course, we're talking somebody who was known to the Canadian community."

Bourne also told the CBC she would not classify the interaction as sexual assault, but "a brief touch."

The incident is alleged to have taken place at the Kokanee Summit Festival in Creston, British Columbia. According to the Guardian, the music festival was a fundraiser supporting avalanche safety, a cause Trudeau has championed since the death of his brother Michel in an avalanche in 1998.

Trudeau was first asked about the allegations on July 1 and said he did not remember the incident as sexual misconduct.

"I remember that day in Creston well,” Trudeau told reporters, according to the Guardian. “I had a good day that day. I don’t remember any negative interactions that day at all.”

On Thursday, Trudeau further responded to the allegations, reinforcing his administration's commitment to people who come forward with allegations of sexual assault or harassment.

"Part of this awakening we're having a society, a long awaited realization, is that it's not just one side of the story that matters, that the same interactions could be experienced very differently from one person to the next, and I am not going to speak for the woman in question," Trudeau told reporters, according to The Associated Press.

But, Trudeau again denied any wrongdoing on his part in regard to the incident and did not answer reporters' questions on calling for an independent investigation.

"I do not feel that I acted inappropriately in any way. But I respect the fact that someone else might have experienced that differently and this is part of the reflections that we have to go through," Trudeau said, according to the AP.

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