What are your thoughts on the shifting balance of power between men and women?
Sexual misconduct.
More from this episode:
The #MeToo movement hit Canadian politics this week, signalling "time's up" for a number of male politicians.
Most prominently, Ontario PC leader Patrick Brown, who hastily resigned over sexual misconduct allegations. He vigorously denied them but his party decided he had to go.
Even a journalist reporting on the events, CTV News reporter Paul Bliss, came under scrutiny. He was suspended, hours after a former colleague made sexual misconduct allegations against him.
What do you think? Has the dam finally burst on unspoken misbehaviour and sexual abuse?
Since the Harvey Weinstein scandal broke last year, the list of well-known Canadian men facing allegations of sexual misconduct — sexual assault, groping, unwelcome kissing, and inappropriate comments — keeps growing in entertainment, sports and media industries.
But this week does seem like a reckoning for Canadian politics. Do you think our politicians are doing enough to ensure the halls of power are free of harassment?
What do you think about what's happening and where it's all headed? Is it a much-needed wake-up call on the pervasiveness of sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace, and beyond? Are attitudes toward sexual consent undergoing a change? Is it a welcome change long overdue?
Some worry the avalanche of allegations has become a "witch hunt" or that major crimes are conflated with minor misconduct. What do you think of men's careers coming to end on the basis of unproven — in some cases anonymous — accusations?
Our question: "What are your thoughts on the shifting balance of power between men and women?"
Guests
Simona Jellinek, a personal injury lawyer based in Toronto
Janice Neil, chair of the School of Journalism at Ryerson University in Toronto
Marni Soupcoff, columnist for the National Post
Sharon Ramsay, marriage and family psychotherapist in Toronto
What we're reading:
CBC.ca
- Sexual advances by Patrick Brown left woman feeling 'anxious,'
- Sport Minister Kent Hehr resigns from Trudeau cabinet amid sexual harassment allegations
- Nova Scotia PC Leader Jamie Baillie forced out over allegations of 'inappropriate behaviour'
- Sexual misconduct an open secret on Parliament Hill, say ex-staffers
- What happens when #MeToo comes to Parliament Hill, by Aaron Wherry
- Gymnastics coach Michel Arsenault under investigation for sex assaults
- Former U.S. gymnastics doctor sentenced 40 to 175 years in sex assault case
- When no one else would believe the gymnasts about Larry Nassar, these reporters did
- Here's a list of well-known men in Canada called out for alleged sexual misconduct since Weinstein
Globe and Mail
- Ontario PCs in turmoil amid sexual-misconduct allegations against Patrick Brown
- Powerful men laid low by the hour: #MeToo remaking society literally overnight
- EDITORIAL: Patrick Brown can protest his innocence, but he had to go
- How Patrick Brown went so quickly from Ontario PC Leader to yesterday's man, by Adam Radwanski
- There is a whisper network in politics. To protect young women, it has to end, by A.H. Reaume
- Canada's political parties need to open up on past sexual harassment allegations, by Campbell Clark
- Predators take heed: Political life is not for you, by Lori Turnbull
National Post
- #MeToo's chaotic, mixed-up message suggests the pendulum has already swung too far, by Marni Soupcoff
- There's no justice in politics. Morons win, geniuses lose and Patrick Brown can be ousted without due process, by Chris Selley
- #MeToo's moment of reckoning is good, but it has its dangers too, by Andrew Coyne
- What happened to Brown is fundamentally wrong. Every man in the world is now vulnerable, by Christie Blatchford
- With #MeToo, we have lost the presumption of innocence, by Christie Blatchford
- Why a murderer may have a better future than a #MeToo accused, by Jonathan Kay
- #MeToo hits Ottawa: MP Kent Hehr resigns from Trudeau cabinet after sexual misconduct allegation
- Accuser hopes Liberal MP's cabinet resignation triggers broader talk about harassment in politics
Toronto Star
- Patrick Brown's downfall an affront to fairness, by Rosie Dimanno
- Male MPs, staff are often bystanders to sexual misconduct on Parliament Hill, former staffer says
- Female MPs unsure where things on Parliament Hill are headed after #MeToo: survey
Maclean's
- Why Kent Hehr had to go
- Patrick Brown's downfall goes far beyond politics, by Andrew MacDougall
- How Canadian politics' sexual harassment problem harms democracy
Atlantic