NDP MP Christine Moore, seen in an interview in her Ottawa office on Friday, says she had ‘an entirely consensual relationship’ with realtor Glen Kirkland, while he claims to have seen his ‘dentist more times in that period of time’ than he saw her.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
The NDP MP accused of harassing a wounded Afghanistan veteran says he was a willing partner in a relationship that lasted for several months after they met during his testimony before a Commons committee in 2013.
Christine Moore appeared at a news conference on Monday in her Quebec riding of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where she disputed the story told by Glen Kirkland, now a realtor in Brandon, Man., when he was approached by reporters last week.
“We were in love. I loved him. I can guarantee that it was an entirely consensual relationship,” Ms. Moore told reporters. “I have done nothing but cry. It’s terrible to see someone could want to tell so many lies. And I really don’t know for what reason he’s doing this.”
Mr. Kirkland, who suffered a brain injury in a Taliban attack and must take insulin several times a day because his pancreas has stopped functioning, said Ms. Moore gave him alcohol at her office after the defence committee meeting in June, 2013, even though, as a nurse, she knew it conflicted with a list of medications he had shown her.
He said she went to his Ottawa hotel room that night and, some weeks later, turned up at a golf vacation he had booked in Saskatchewan. Then, he said, she arrived uninvited at his home in Manitoba.
When the allegations were made public, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh relieved Ms. Moore of her caucus duties and ordered an independent investigation.
Ms. Moore, meanwhile, has announced her intention to bring defamation suits against Mr. Kirkland and columnists Neil Macdonald of CBC, Christie Blatchford of the National Post and Rosie DiManno of the Toronto Star.
It was Ms. Moore’s allegations of harassment that led to the recent expulsion of Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir from the NDP caucus, as well as those of MPs Massimo Pacetti and Scott Andrews from the Liberal caucus in 2013.
Ms. Moore said at the news conference that she was moved by Mr. Kirkland’s testimony about the attack in Afghanistan and gave him her business card with an offer of assistance.
She said she bumped into him and other veterans again after the meeting and suggested they go back to her office, where she offered wine and vodka and allowed people to serve themselves. The party broke up soon afterward because she had another event to attend. But she later went to meet up with Mr. Kirkland and some other people on a patio because, she said, he had sent her an invitation via text.
Ms. Moore said she and Mr. Kirkland then went back to her office so she could prepare for House votes taking place that night. “We spoke briefly, and Mr. Kirkland kissed me, and I responded to his kiss,” she said.
She went to the House of Commons to vote. While she was there, she said, he texted her to join him at his hotel, which she did.
“Before we left each other, he said he absolutely wanted to see me again. I said I was interested as well,” Ms. Moore said. “After that we communicated by text message, by chat, Skype, e-mail and phone very regularly.”
She said she met up with him a few weeks later in Saskatchewan. “He seemed to be very happy. He told me he was in love with me many times, and they were great times.”
And, she said, she went to visit him in Brandon, Man., but when he cancelled a visit to Quebec in the fall and told her that a long-distance romance would be difficult, she ended the relationship.
Mr. Kirkland said on Monday in a telephone interview that Ms. Moore’s description of the relationship is “outlandish.”
“Did I have a relationship with her? No. I saw my dentist more times in that period of time than I saw her,” he said.
He said he was ready, by the end of last week, to refuse to speak publicly about Ms. Moore until the results of the NDP’s independent investigation are known. But “now that she’s trying to call me a liar, how would I not defend myself?”
Mr. Singh said in a statement that he is looking for someone who can conduct the investigation in a timely manner. “There are clear discrepancies between the accounts of Mr. Kirkland and Ms. Moore,” he said, “and that is why it is so important to have a balanced and unbiased investigation into the allegations made.”
With a file from Daniel Leblanc