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The now former reporter has declined a request for comment from the Post, which has chosen not to name her. However, both Bourne and the Advance’s then-editor, Brian Bell, told the Post the reporter spoke with them about the alleged incident in its immediate aftermath. What’s more, the reporter appears to have taken steps at the time to make the complaint public; the Post understands she wrote the editorial herself.

Bell, who was on vacation at the time of Trudeau’s visit and of the editorial’s publication, said the reporter spoke with him about the encounter when he returned to the newsroom.

“I believe that it happened,” Bell told the Post. “I know that she told me about it when I got back and I don’t doubt she spoke to the publisher about it.”

The Prime Minister’s Office gave the Post a statement earlier this month saying Trudeau does not recall any “negative interactions” during his visit to Creston that year. Presented Friday with the contemporaneous accounts from Bourne and Bell, Trudeau’s office reiterated the original statement.

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The Creston Valley Advance editorial was republished at the beginning of April, verbatim and without context or comment, by Frank, an Ottawa-based political gossip and satire magazine. Earlier this month, Warren Kinsella, a consultant, political commentator, former Liberal operative and frequent critic of Trudeau, posted the editorial on Twitter, setting off a social-media storm. That led to stories about the allegation on conservative U.S. websites like Breitbart and The Daily Caller, as well as columns in the Toronto Sun, a post on BuzzFeed, a smattering of coverage in the U.K. and France and a reference in The New York Times. The Post has not previously reported on its contents because it was in the process of authenticating the allegation and researching its author and context.