Conservative MP Michelle Rempel Garner says she’s “tired” of being asked by media outlets to speak about harassment issues for women in public life and government.
Rempel Garner included a screenshot of a media request from an unnamed outlet asking her “to talk more specifically about this idea of harassment, particularly for women in public life, and to talk a bit about what role government plays in addressing it.”
Rempel Garner said she has consistently received similarly-worded media requests throughout her political career and said that her Twitter post is “how I actually want to respond when I receive any variation on this media request.”
“I’m tired of platforming this issue instead of the litany of others my constituents need me to speak to,” she wrote.
“I’ve received the exact same media request from every outlet in the country nearly once a week for the entirety of my time in office [and] nothing has changed,” she said. “Literally nothing.”
“Most high-profile cases of alleged sexual misconduct in the recent history of Canadian politics have ended with the accuser losing her job—either by having to quit due to a toxic workplace or by outright firing—and the accused facing virtually no consequences for his actions,” Rempel Garner wrote.
Rempel Garner says she would rather speak to the media about current political issues other than harassment.
“I’m happy to talk about solutions for inflation, or geopolitics, or immigration or anything else ... other than this,” she said. “But I will not use the platform my constituents gave me to defend their interests to deal with this issue like it’s Groundhog Day.”
Rempel Garner said she would be more interested in speaking about harassment issues after the government takes concrete action to combat them.
“Come back to me when you’ve got a panel together on if I think the solutions are working,” she said.
