Gerry Sklavounos's office window pasted with sex-victims' rights slogans
Quebec City woman Alice Paquet alleged then-Liberal MNA assaulted her twice, Crown did not lay charges
Stickers that read "We believe you," a slogan commonly used to show support for victims of sexual assault, have been plastered on the window of MNA Gerry Sklavounos's Montreal office.
Sklavounos was recently cleared of sexual assault allegations, made by Quebec City woman Alice Paquet last fall.
The stickers, which also read "Feminist killjoy" and "Justice pour les victimes d'agressions sexuelles" (justice for sexual assault victims), are stuck to a window on the ground floor, right beneath a campaign-style poster featuring Sklavounos's headshot.
Quebec's Crown prosecutor's office announced last week that following a police investigation of Paquet's allegations, it had determined no crime had been committed and Sklavounos wouldn't be charged.
The stickers were pasted to the window of the St-Laurent Boulevard office in the hours after Sklavounos held his first public appearance since the allegations came to light.
During the news conference, he maintained his innocence and vowed to fight for gender equality.
In a Facebook post, Paquet said it was still too painful for her to talk about the situation, and shared a link to a protest to denounce the "rape culture at the National Assembly," set for Wednesday evening.
Sklavounos resigned from the Liberal caucus in October and is now sitting as an independent.
He will return to the National Assembly next week but it is still unclear whether he will be welcomed back into the Liberal fold.
Voters unsure of the facts
In Sklavounos's riding of Laurier-Dorion, which covers the Villeray and Parc-Extension neighbourhoods, reactions to his statement have been mixed.
George Glikakis, who owns the St-Roch barbershop in Parc-Extension, has known Sklavounos for years, even giving him his first haircuts as a child.
Glikakis says Sklavounos should be allowed back into the Liberal caucus because "that's where he belongs."
He says doesn't feel like what he's heard allows him to form a definitive opinion on what actually happened.
"I was always brought up with facts. And I don't see any facts."
Paul Rekatsinas, who voted for Sklavounos in the last election, said he thinks some rushed to judgment in making calls for Sklavounos to not be allowed back into the Liberal caucus.
"It's not fair. If no charges have been laid, why should your professional life be railroaded just based on somebody else saying something?"
Rekatsinas said Sklavounos was cleared of the charges and so he shouldn't have to apologize for something he didn't do.
Rachel Shugart, who lives in Parc-Extension and didn't vote for him in the last election, said she and many of her friends and neighbours weren't impressed by Sklavounos's statement.
"Everything he said in that statement really struck me as insincere, as really not taking into account how his behaviour was wrong and how it made people feel," she said.
She also expressed doubts about how authorities investigate sexual assault allegations and how they reach conclusions about whether an assault took place.
with files from Shaun Malley, Salimah Shivji and CBC Montreal's Daybreak