BC Liberal leadership contender Kevin Falcon’s front-runner status got another jolt as one of his campaign staffers was accused of sexual harassment by the campaign manager of Falcon’s opponent Michael Lee. Although the staffer, a veteran Indo-Canadian BC Liberal organizer, has not been named, it has been rumored that he was a “Bassi Boys” scandal player.
By R. Paul Dhillon – Founder-Editor DESIBUZZCanada
VANCOUVER – BC Liberal leadership contender Kevin Falcon’s front-runner status got another jolt as one of his campaign staffers was accused of sexual harassment by the campaign manager of Falcon’s opponent Michael Lee.
Although the staffer, a veteran Indo-Canadian BC Liberal organizer, has not been named, it has been rumored that he was a “Bassi Boys” scandal player.
The still un-named staffer has been fired by Falcon following allegations of sexual harassment made and posted to social media by Diamond Isinger.
“Last night, I spoke to Diamond Isinger and apologized for the behaviour of members of my campaign team. She had informed me about the specific actions of one particular individual on the team. We’ve since spoken to that member, and based on the conversation, there was sufficient acknowledgement of Diamond’s account and I have ended the relationship between him and my campaign team,” Falcon said in a press release Tuesday.
On Monday, when allegations hit the media, Falcon said he asked my co-chair to retain third-party legal counsel to understand the full details of the incident. I hope to receive full cooperation from everyone involved in order to act on the subsequent recommendations.
“The incident as laid out by Diamond is reprehensible and wrong. I am truly disturbed and disappointed by the actions of those involved. These incidents are unfortunately all too common and I commend Diamond for speaking up on behalf of herself and all the women who have experienced these encounters. I hope that we can work together to ensure that women never have to be subjected to this type of toxic behaviour ever again,” Falcon said.
Isinger said she tried to settle the matter privately with Falcon and his team, but “with no apologies or consequences to date” made the decision to go public on Sunday, according to the statement she shared on Twitter.
In the statement, Isinger said an “unexpected” run-in with four workers of Falcon’s campaign on Oct. 29 ended with her in tears. She alleges in her statement that a male staff member made “sexually suggestive jokes” about her while the group was seated at a downtown Vancouver restaurant.
Isinger said that when she piped up in her own defence, the aide became enraged and yelled “uptight bitch,” “f—ing c—” and other misogynist profanities for more than 15 minutes. Isinger said this wa s witnessed by restaurant patrons and serving staff.
“He insisted I shake his hand to reconcile with him in between these outbursts. When I declined to do so, he berated me again. Others at the table let this continue for a long time while I burst into tears,” Isinger said in her statement.
Interestingly, Falcon campaign co-chair Dianne Watts did not comment on the incident. Meanwhile she’s busy organizing, meeting members of the South Asian community for support.
Vancouver Police Sgt. Steve Addison told the Vancouver Sun the department is aware of allegations surrounding Friday’s incident, although he said he could not disclose if a police report had been filed.
Support from other politicians, including former Premier Christy Clark, has poured in for Isinger over social media.
“By speaking out, you are helping to make change,” Clark commented on Twitter. “I know many of us are utterly disgusted by what you describe, but also heartened by your decision to make it public. We know it could just as easily have been any of us.”
The fired Indo-Canadian staffer was linked to the infamous Basi Boys crew, a close-knit group of Indo-Canadian Liberal activists. The group was named after Dave Basi, a BC Liberal ministerial assistant, who’s office along with Bob Virk, another ministerial assistant, was raided by police over allegations of bribe, including lobbyists paying $30,000 to three B.C. government officials in exchange for government information to help one of their clients in the BC Rail deal. Basi was fired from his job in the office of B.C. Finance Minister Gary Collins.
