Sheila Copps says she was sexually assaulted at Queen’s Park, raped in another incident | Toronto St

Sheila Copps says she was sexually assaulted at Queen’s Park, raped in another incident

The former deputy prime minister says she “never reported him, chalking the incident up to personal misjudgment.”

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Dave Chan

Sheila Copps says it was another member of the Ontario legislature who pushed himself on her in a northern hotel hallway after a day-long parliamentary session on violence against women.

By: The Hamilton Spectator Published on Mon Nov 10 2014

Former deputy prime minister Sheila Copps says she was sexually assaulted at Queen’s Park while a Hamilton MPP and — in a different incident — raped by someone she knew.

A member of the Ontario legislature pushed himself on her in a hotel after a day-long parliamentary session on violence against women, Copps wrote in a column published on Monday in The Hill Times.

“I pushed back on my assailant, kicking him where it hurts, when he tried to force me up against a wall and kiss me,” the former deputy prime minister and MPP said.

“I never reported him, chalking the incident up to personal misjudgment,” Copps said.

Copps — former MPP for Hamilton Centre and then a cabinet minister in the Jean Chrétien government — also wrote that “someone I knew has also raped me.”

She said the rape was more than 30 years ago, and wrote that when she went to the police, “I was informed that a conviction was impossible.”

“Police merely paid a visit to the culprit warning him to keep his distance.”

In the column, Copps also said she committed a “grievous personal lapse in judgment” last week when she took to Twitter in support of Jian Ghomeshi.

“I should never have weighed on an issue as sensitive as that without taking the time to hear the other side of the story,” she wrote.

She also discusses the serious misconduct complaints lodged by two NDP MPs against two Liberal members who have been ejected from their caucus while an investigation takes place.

Copps writes that, unlike the Ghomeshi case — where allegations have now been referred to police — “unfortunately no Canadian police force can investigate a complaint on Parliament Hill.”

“The Hill workplace is not subject to provincial labour laws, which offer protection in every other place of employment in Ontario,” Copps wrote.