Conservative MP Peter Goldring has apologized for a bizarre statement he released earlier Wednesday, in which he said MPs on Parliament Hill who “consort” with one another should “wear protection” in the form of video cameras.
“Earlier today I issued a press release that I now recognize was completely inappropriate. I retract that press release unconditionally and deeply regret it,” he said in a statement late Wednesday.
The Prime Minister’s Office had already distanced itself from Goldring’s original statement.
Goldring, a veteran MP from Edmonton East, was apparently responding to the sexual misconduct allegations levelled against two Liberal members who have since been suspended from caucus.
In the original statement, Goldring recommends all MPs who “consort” with one another wear body cameras to protect their “health and integrity,” and to prevent “besmirchment when encounters go awry.”
Goldring said it is not enough for MPs to say their intentions are “honourable” when they invite a colleague to “play a game of Scrabble at the end of a day of playing sports and drinking.”
“MPs must learn, as I have from encounters with authority figures in the past, that all do not tell the truth,” he said.
In an email to CTV News, the prime minister’s press secretary Carl Vallée said “Mr. Goldring’s comments reflect his own personal position.”
Goldring resigned from the Conservative Party in late 2011 after he was charged with refusing to provide a breathalyzer sample to a police officer during a roadside stop in Edmonton that December. He was later re-admitted into the party in 2013.
