Winnipeg Centre Liberal Candidate Raps Ndp Rival over Facebook Post Calling Catholics Complicit in Sex Crimes

By Bartley Kives
CBC News
October 16, 2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ouellette-gazan-winnipeg-centre-facebook-1.5323803

Robert-Falcon Ouellette calls Leah Gazan rhetoric unacceptable; she pledges to be more careful on social media

Liberal Winnipeg Centre incumbent candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette is accusing his NDP rival Leah Gazan of intolerance over a 2018 Facebook post. (Jeff Stapleton/CBC)

The Liberal incumbent candidate for Winnipeg Centre is accusing his NDP opponent of intolerance over a 14-month-old Facebook post that implied all Catholics are complicit in sex crimes committed by priests.

In a statement issued Wednesday, Liberal candidate Robert-Falcon Ouellette demanded New Democrat Leah Gazan explain an August 2018 Facebook post that stated "Every practicing Catholic is complicit in the rape and sexual abuse of children by predatory priests."

This line of text, which appeared over a link on Gazan's personal Facebook page, takes readers to a story entitled "Supporting the Catholic Church means supporting the rape and sexual abuse of children," published by the religion and spirituality website Patheos.

Ouellette, who is seeking a second term as a member of parliament, called Gazan's rhetoric unacceptable.

"It shows contempt for people's most deeply held beliefs. And if it is not acceptable to make such sweeping generalizations about one group, it is not acceptable to make them about any group," Ouellete said in the statement.

"I would ask my opponent, would she knock on doors and tell people in Winnipeg Centre who are practising Catholics, that she believes them to be complicit in child rape?"

Gazan said in a statement Wednesday night the language of the post, made prior to her nomination as an NDP candidate, was inflammatory.

"Like many people in Canada and around the world, I'm horrified and saddened by the history of sexual abuse within Catholic institutions. I shared on Facebook an article about that abuse with no personal comment," Gazan said in a statement Wednesday evening.

"I understand the headline of the article was inflammatory, and I commit, going forward, to provide more context when posting articles from other sources."

This exchange between the Ouellette and Gazan campaigns took place five days before the federal election.

The NDP held Winnipeg Centre from its modern inception in 1997 until 2015, when Ouellette defeated New Democrat incumbent Pat Martin.