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“I felt awful. I felt so shaky, gross. But nobody batted an eyelid, there must have been, I don’t know, 10 other MPs in that space at the time, with senior staff.”

According to Dobson-Hughes, it was the second time Stoffer had forced a kiss on her.

My story is not especially unique or shocking on Parliament Hill

Two former NDP MPs confirmed to the Post that they handled complaints against Stoffer.

“There was always rumours of Peter being overly friendly,” Dawn Black, then a B.C. MP told the Post. “Lauren is not the only one who raised this.”

The Post has, in fact, spoken to three women who independently said Stoffer acted inappropriately with them.

While others had complained of Stoffer’s behavior towards women, and though it created concerns with some senior party officials — concerns which went all the way up to Layton and the NDP’s caucus chair — there appears never to have been a workplace investigation into Stoffer’s conduct, nor did the NDP take any formal disciplinary measures against him. He maintained his status as an icon of the party even after his defeat in the 2015 federal election, which ended his nearly two decades as an MP.

Stoffer, speaking to the Post Thursday, categorically denied any past sexually inappropriate behaviour.

“None of the allegations you indicated had happened, that I recall,” Stoffer said. “I can assure you I’ve never assaulted anybody, sexually or anyway in any shape or form in my life.”

If a cultural shift is underway on Parliament Hill regarding how reports of sexual harassment and assault are treated, the story of how Dobson-Hughes’s complaint was handled offers a case study in the way things used to be done — perhaps sometimes still are — and what repercussions those decisions can have.