In recent months, the news cycle has been chock full of stories about powerful men who stand accused of sexual assault or harassment.
Among those who have been caught up in the #MeToo movement are the President of the United States, Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and many other prominent men.
The #MeToo movement serves an important purpose. The hashtag has given women a chance to voice their experiences with sexual assault and harassment on social media in an effort to increase awareness.
The movement is also meant to make it easier for women to come forward with grevances. With so many people coming forward, it has created a network of people who stand up for one another to combat the all-too-common dismissal of women who come forward with complaints.
Most of the #MeToo complaints stem from sexual misconduct but this specific case is not sexual in nature.
And while the goal of the #MeToo movement is to make it easier for women to be believed, this shouldn’t happen at the expense of available evidence.
Obviously it’s a noble goal for society to believe the women who have the courage to come forward, but that shouldn’t mean that any and all complaints be taken at face value.
There have been stories of #MeToo being taken too far.

One such incident occurred just down Hwy. 148 in Gatineau last week.
On March 13, a Radio-Canada reporter was arrested after a harassment complaint was filed against him with Gatineau Police.
Antoine Trépanier was investigating a story about the executive director of the Big Brothers Big Sisters chapter in Gatineau of practicing law without a license.
The director, Yvonne Dubé, said she had never represented anyone as a lawyer.
Trépanier got in touch with Dubé and set up a formal on-camera interview in advance of the story being published.
After initially agreeing to the interview, Dubé abruptly cancelled the interview.
In response, Trépanier sent an email the next day again requesting an interview.
Dubé then contacted Gatineau Police and filed a criminal harassment complaint against Trépanier.
Trépanier was arrested and signed a promise to appear in court. The Crown Attorney is debating whether to proceed with charges.
This is absurd.
If a person wants to call the police and file a criminal harassment complaint against a journalist after a phone call and an email, that’s fine.
But, as a journalist, my expectation would be that the police would exercise some level of judgment and decide if the case has merit.
Journalists need to get a hold of people in the course of their professional duties.
Not surprisingly, many of the people who journalists reach out to don’t want to speak to the media because, in many cases, that person may have done something wrong.
As the old saying goes: better to say nothing and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.
Since so many people are reluctant to speak to the media, journalists are trained to be persistent. If a story is accusing someone of malfeasance, that person ought to have the right to respond publicly.
The rule of thumb is to call three times at most. If the person doesn’t get back to you at that point, it’s pretty obvious they have no desire to speak to you. Fair enough.
But a journalist that simply tries once and gives up is being negligent in their duties to uncover the truth of the story.
That’s all that Trépanier was trying to do when he called and emailed Dubé.
Instead of ignoring the call and going about her day, Dubé appears to have capitalized off the fervor generated by the #MeToo movement and attempted to smear a journalist who was just doing his job.
If this wasn’t bad enough, the fact that the police arrested the journalist after going over the facts is something that the Gatineau Police should be ashamed of.
In fact, the police chief held a farce of a press conference where he defended the decision of his officers to arrest Trépanier.
“It is our duty to respond to a victim’s complaint, which we did, and it’s our duty to protect the public,” said Gatineau Police Chief Mario Harel.
“Protect the Public,” he says. It seems like Trépanier was trying to accomplish the same goal.
Here was a person in a position of authority allegedly misrepresenting herself in a court of law. This is a pretty serious matter.
“We have the obligation to listen to the alleged victim,” Harel continued.
By all means, listen to the victim. But I expect a group of people who are trained professionals to be able to distinguish between a journalist trying to do their job and a bona fide case of harassment.
With the recent uptick in accusations of “Fake News” being hurled at all levels of journalists, this won’t help matters much.

Chris Lowrey