Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has denied that he groped a female reporter 18 years ago, saying he doesn't remember any 'negative interactions' from that day.

Trudeau publicly addressed the groping allegations when he was hit with questions about it at a public event in Regina, Saskatchewan on Sunday as part of Canada Day festivities.

The alleged incident took place back in 2000 at a music festival in Creston, B.C. to raise money for an avalanche safety charity that Trudeau was involved in following the death of his brother two years earlier.

Trudeau, who was 28 at the time and known for being the son of former PM Pierre Trudeau, hadn't yet entered politics and was working as a teacher.

The alleged incident in which Justin Trudeau was accused of groping a local newspaper reporter took place in 2000 at a music festival in Creston, B.C. Trudeau is pictured above at the event in a photo published in the Toronto Sun

Days after the festival, the allegation that he groped a young female reporter appeared in an unsigned editorial in a local newspaper.

The allegations and newspaper report resurfaced last month when a blogger posted a snippet of the editorial on Twitter.

It has been a main subject in political discussions in Canada since it reemerged.

Forced to address the claims at the Canada Day event on Sunday, Trudeau told reporters that he didn't recall any 'negative reactions' from the festival.

'I remember that day in Creston well,' Trudeau said.

'I had a good day that day; I don't remember any negative interactions that day at all.'

The female reporter at the center of the allegations has not spoken out publicly in the years since the editorial was published in the Creston Valley Advance newspaper.

Multiple Canadian media outlets tracked the woman down earlier this year but she did not want to be associated with the story or be named.

The editorial never described exactly what happened, but said the woman had been left feeling 'blatantly disrespected'.

Trudeau publicly addressed the groping allegations when he was hit with questions about it at a public event on Sunday (pictured above) as part of Canada Day festivities

The allegations, which were published in a newspaper editorial in 2000, resurfaced last month when a blogger posted a snippet of the editorial on Twitter

'It’s not a rare incident to have a young reporter, especially a female working for a small community newspaper, be considered an underling to their ‘more predominant’ associates and blatantly disrespected because of it,' the editorial stated.

'But shouldn’t the son of a former prime minister be aware of the rights and wrongs that go along with public socializing?

'Didn’t he learn through his vast experiences in public life, that groping a strange young woman isn’t in the handbook of proper etiquette regardless of who she is, what her business is, or where they are.'

Trudeau apologized to the reporter, according to the editorial.

'I'm sorry. If I had known you were reporting for a national paper, I never would have been so forward,' he is alleged to have said.

The former publisher of the newspaper, Valerie Bourne, told CBC News she remembered the reporter being distressed by Trudeau's alleged behavior.

'My recollections of the conversation were that she came to me because she was unsettled by it. She didn't like what had happened. She wasn't sure how she should proceed with it because of course we're talking somebody who was known to the Canadian community,' Bourne said.

'It was a brief touch. I would not classify it or qualify it as sexual assault.'

Bourne said she believed the reporter wrote the editorial herself.

Brian Bell, who edited the newspaper at the time, said he believed the reporter but didn't recall her being traumatized by it.

'I certainly believe that it happened, this reporter was of a high character in my opinion and was professional in the way she conducted herself and there's no question in my mind that what was alluded to, written about in that editorial, did happen,' he said.