Justin Trudeau Accused of Sexual Assault Fails Purity Test
Justin Trudeau was accused of sexual assault stemming back from a story published nearly 20 years ago. He at first denied the allegations but then stated that the woman experienced the situation differently from him and apologized.This is another instance of the purity test. Often people's careers and livelihood can be destroyed over accusations and they don't recover. So will this be bad for Trudeau in the future?Support the show (http://timcast.com/donate)
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A story came out about a month ago, about a really old story back from 2000, where a reporter wrote about Justin Trudeau sexually assaulting her.
At first, it seems like Justin Trudeau denied it, said that he didn't remember any negative interactions.
Now, it seems like he's apologizing for it.
But the woman who made the accusation against him has finally spoke up and issued a statement.
The left engages in purity testing, and what this means is they're going to dig through your history and find anything you may have said or done in the past, and then hold that against you in the present.
You know, back in the day, there were norms that were acceptable.
In fact, there were behaviors that were encouraged, and you were supposed to act in certain ways.
One of my favorite examples is that George Carlin, who was a darling to the left in the 90s, and for most of his career, Went on stage and said a bunch of racial slurs to the cheer and applause of the audience.
Today, that would not be acceptable.
I have to imagine that if George Carlin was alive today, he'd be called to account for the things he said in the past.
Today, it seems like what may have been a minor and non-incident 18 years ago has become an international news story about the Prime Minister of Canada.
So, what exactly did this woman say about Justin Trudeau?
Is it true?
Did he actually grope this woman?
And how is purity testing negatively impacting the far left and the regressive left?
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First, from June 7th, Justin Trudeau was accused of groping a reporter at a music festival in 2000.
The incident allegedly took place when Trudeau was 28.
The Prime Minister's press secretary told BuzzFeed News he doesn't recall any negative interactions.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, a self-described feminist who has made combating sexual harassment and sexual assault a centerpiece of his political image, was accused of groping a young woman reporter at a music festival almost two decades ago.
The allegation was first published in an editorial in the Creston Valley Advance, a community newspaper in British Columbia, in August 2000.
It has periodically resurfaced online, including in Frank Magazine earlier this year.
The allegation came to wider attention this week when photos of the editorial were widely shared on social media, and received further prominence when Breitbart reported on it Thursday.
In a statement to BuzzFeed News, the Prime Minister's Press Secretary Matt Pescuzzo said Trudeau has always treated women with respect, and he doesn't think he had any negative interactions while in Creston.
BuzzFeed News obtained a copy of the newspaper editorial from the archives of the Creston Museum.
The editorial says, Trudeau, who was in Creston to celebrate the Kokani Summit Festival put on by the Columbia Brewery, apologized a day late for inappropriately handling the reporter while she was on assignment, not only for the advance, but also for the National Post and the Vancouver Sun.
The story quotes Trudeau as saying, I'm sorry.
If I had known you were reporting for a national paper, I never would have been so forward.
The advance editorial quotes Trudeau as telling the reporter afterwards.
And here is a photo of good old 28-year-old Justin Trudeau in August of 2000
with an excellent haircut, a great necklace, and a large stein of beer.
So that's the story that's making its rounds.
Yes, Justin Trudeau did something that's seemingly inappropriate.
He apologized a day late for it.
But even his apology seems kind of like...
It seems kind of like a non-issue to me.
Is what he did wrong?
For sure, absolutely.
He shouldn't have done that.
But it seems like it's not the biggest deal in the world, and I have to wonder why it's being brought up.
Well, as BuzzFeed says, there are people on the right calling out Justin Trudeau for the story and his behavior.
So the purity test that everyone seems to be engaging in creates an impossible standard.
But I think what is important is not necessarily the allegation, but the fact that the purity test exists.
That people will hold this against Justin Trudeau, even though it happened nearly two decades ago.
And, as of today, we have a statement from the woman who he allegedly groped.
From the CBC.
Woman who accused Trudeau of groping breaks her silence.
Calling for privacy, she writes that the debate, if it continues, will continue without my involvement.
The woman, Rose Knight, a former journalist, said, I issued this statement reluctantly in response to mounting
media pressure to confirm that I was the reporter who was subject of the Open Eyes
editorial published in the Creston Valley Advance in August 2000.
The incident referred to in the editorial did occur as reported.
Mr. Trudeau did apologize the next day.
I did not pursue the incident at the time, and I will not be pursuing the incident further.
I have no subsequent contact with Mr. Trudeau before or after he became Prime Minister.
Trudeau was asked about Knight's statement while in Calgary for an investment announcement.
Over the past week since the news resurfaced, I've been reflecting, we've all been reflecting, on past behaviors.
As I said, I'm confident I didn't act inappropriately.
But I think the essence of this is people can experience interactions differently, and part of the lesson we need to learn in this moment of collective awakening, people, in many cases women, experience interactions in professional contexts and other contexts differently than men.
I apologized in the moment because I had obviously perceived that she had experienced it in a different way than I had acted or experienced it.
I don't really like the way Justin Trudeau has responded to these accusations.
Now, the woman spoke up, and she said that it was addressed, it's 20 years old, and it's kind of a non-issue.
And personally, I do think it's a non-issue.
But this becomes a problem because Justin Trudeau has been such a proponent of this regressive ideology.
Just in January, Trudeau says, reflections from Me Too movement continue for us all.
And this is from the Huffington Post.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked Tuesday if the MeToo movement has prompted him to reflect on his own past behavior.
He told the CBC that he doesn't think anyone will be able to accuse him of acting improperly.
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 told journalist Chris Hall in an interview
recorded for CBC's The House.
The prime minister pointed to his experiences 25 years ago as one of the few male volunteer
facilitators at the sexual assault center of the McGill Student Society.
It is essential that women be believed.
And then, when Justin Trudeau was accused of groping this woman, he first denied the allegations.
From the BBC on July 2nd, Canada PM Justin Trudeau denies groping allegation.
The Prime Minister said he did not recall any negative interactions at the event.
I had a good day that day, he said.
I don't remember any negative interactions that day at all.
Justin Trudeau's denial is actually rather clever in my opinion.
He never said it didn't happen.
He didn't straight up deny it.
He just said he didn't recall any negative interactions.
Which gives him an easy out should evidence come to light further.
Which it did when a statement was made.
Now Justin Trudeau's statement that women experience things differently is, I kind of think it's pretty on point, but it also is pretty convenient for someone who has said that women should be believed to then say, oh, it didn't happen, or I should say, I don't recall that, and then eventually go, she must have experienced something different than me.
I don't think what happened in the story is an issue.
I think it's rather stupid.
That so many people are trying to point out that Justin Trudeau was probably drunk at a music festival and made a move on a woman.
Is that acceptable?
No, of course not.
But people are young and stupid and they do dumb things, and Justin Trudeau apologized for it, and the editorial even says he apologized for it, and it actually seems like a pretty fair apology.
When I look at what he said and how the story was framed, it seems to me like he didn't realize what he was doing was inappropriate because he thought it was more of a party kind of atmosphere.
That doesn't excuse his behavior by any means.
But, he apologized, it seems like he misread the moment, and we don't necessarily know what it means by handling.
You know, the fact that the woman, Rose Knight, has said she doesn't want to be involved and the incident is, you know, has been dealt with and is 20 years old says to me that we shouldn't even really be talking about it.
However, The far left has a purity standard, and if you don't adhere to this standard, you're in trouble.
Justin Trudeau is falling into this trap, because the reality is there is no way to survive a purity test.
Justin Trudeau said in January that he doesn't think anyone would be able to accuse him of anything, and then sure enough, an editorial surfaces showing that yes, at some point in his life, he did something wrong.
I guarantee you, when I was young, I did a ton of really dumb Things!
I avoid swearing on this channel.
If you want swearing, go to my second channel.
But today, people will dig through your past, find things you've said a long time ago, and use that against you.
But we all change.
Our opinions change.
And I think it's unfair, and I think it's stupid.
Especially when you look at how innocuous this incident seemed.
But let's look at another story about the purity test and then go in depth on why it's just so dangerous for the left and probably really really good for the right.
Chris Hardwick was accused of sexual assault and in this story we can see that his AMC talk show was pulled And his appearances were cancelled because of these allegations.
One day after Chris Hardwick's ex-girlfriend Chloe Dykstra made sexual assault allegations, AMC has announced they will no longer be airing his talk show while we assess the situation.
On Saturday, the network released a statement obtained by People explaining that they will have pulled Talking with Chris Hardwick, which was set to return on Sunday, from the schedule.
Additionally, Hardwick will no longer moderate two upcoming panels at San Diego's Comic-Con in July.
And I want to point out that Chris Hardwick's current wife and several of his exes have spoken in his defense.
I've known Chris for over 15 years.
We dated years and years ago.
He is one of the kindest, most supportive, woman-supporting, intelligent people I've ever met.
I don't want to go into great detail on the Chris Hardwick story.
Suffice it to say, he was accused of impropriety, and it's damaged his career, his reputation, he's lost work.
When I see stories like this, it says to me that the Founding Fathers understood the power of public opinion.
So they enshrined a right, that we are innocent until proven guilty.
That we have a right to confront our accusers.
It is in the Bill of Rights.
In the court of public opinion, you're not so lucky.
These purity tests will only serve to destroy the left.
Look at what happens with Trump.
He's been accused numerous times of impropriety, and the right and Trump supporters don't care, for the most part.
I'm sure many of them are concerned and don't like hearing that Trump is kind of a dick.
But they also aren't going to throw the baby out with the bathwater when they hear these stories.
They're more goal-oriented.
Well, the left is all about purity and political correctness.
So if someone has something in their past, or is even just accused of something, they're going to face harsh ramifications, and it's going to destabilize their own side.
For whatever reason, the left is known for eating their own.
I think about it like a simple equation.
If people on the right care much less about what you've done in your past or whether or not you're politically correct, and the left cares a whole lot about who you were in your past and if you're politically correct, then the left is going to internally damage itself over time, and the right is going to grow because they just don't care.
If someone on the right is accused of something, depending on what it is, the right will probably say, yeah, sure, whatever, do your thing.
The left will say, this is terrible and this person must be removed from their position of authority.
In which case, more individuals on the right will have an opportunity to flourish, and less people on the left will have an opportunity to flourish.
So, I hope people on the left take these stories and really understand just how bad they're making it for themselves by holding people to ridiculous standards.
But not only that, I think it's rather silly that we even have to have the conversation.
But this is our political discourse today.
I'm sure you all understand just how silly it is and exactly why we talk about it.
Because it's relevant.
Because people on the left are so damn serious.
People on the right don't care that much, but know the left will freak out and get triggered when they hear a story about Justin Trudeau groping a woman.
But let me know what you think in the comments below.
How do you feel about the purity test?
Personally, I think it's absolutely ridiculous.
And that we all change as people as time goes on, and to try and hold people to past standards is absurd.
Because not only do we change, society changes.
But you go ahead and comment, let me know what you think, we'll keep the conversation going.
Stay tuned, new videos every day at 4 p.m.
I've got a bunch of videos coming up on my second channel starting at 6 p.m., so check that out.
