TORONTO -- Premier Kathleen Wynne said Tuesday that she's had to deal with allegations of sexual harassment against at least two Liberal members of the Ontario legislature since she became party leader in 2013.
However, Wynne wouldn't say who they were, where the allegations came from, or if she asked the accused offenders to leave the Liberal caucus.
"I dealt with them in various ways," she said. "There have been a couple of instances. The situations were confidential, so I'm not going to go into details."
When Progressive Conservative Leader Patrick Brown recently ordered a Tory MPP to get sensitivity training after he told a crude, sexist joke, Wynne strongly suggested that Jack MacLaren should have been booted out of the PC caucus.
When asked Tuesday whether she had expelled any Liberal MPPs from the government caucus or asked them to resign because of unacceptable behaviour, Wynne said she was "not at liberty" to talk about those situations.
"The conversations have been confidential for various reasons, not the least of which is people who brought complaints forward were not looking for a public process," she said.
Her response prompted Brown to accuse the premier of having a double-standard.
"I think it's typical of this government," he said.
The New Democrats said the premier should hold Liberals to the same standards she sets for members of the opposition parties.
"You can't have one set of rules for one group because you can get a political advantage and then have another set of rules for your own group," said NDP Leader Andrea Horwath.
Horwath said "unfortunately" she wasn't surprised to hear about sexual harassment allegations against Liberal members of the legislature, but added she hasn't had to deal with similar situations in her own caucus.
She did, however, say that some NDP members "have talked about feeling uncomfortable with inappropriate touching" that has happened at Queen's Park.
"This is not the '50s, it's 2016, and people need to be respectful of each other's individual space and be respectful of women's sexuality."
Wynne proposed a Code of Conduct for members of the legislature after MacLaren got into hot water, and said Tuesday that all members of the Liberal caucus will be given sensitivity training.
"We're going to have training sessions in the context of the sexual violence plan that we brought forward, and that has and is happening," she said.
The NDP is planning sensitivity training for its caucus and staff too, added Horwath.
"So they have a good sense of what's not acceptable and what is acceptable," she said.
