OTTAWA—Saskatchewan MP Erin Weir will seek the federal NDP nomination in his Regina riding, even though party leader Jagmeet Singh has slammed the door on his efforts to return to the New Democrats in the wake of a harassment investigation.

In an interview with the Star, Weir challenged Singh not to approve his nomination if party members in Regina-Lewvan choose him as their candidate in the 2019 election.

Singh informed Weir last week that he was not welcome back to the NDP caucus and that he would not be allowed to run for the party, stating in a letter that he isn’t confident the Regina MP wouldn’t repeat his “harassing behaviour.”

“What Mr. Singh is saying in effect is he does not trust more than 2,000 NDP members in Regina-Lewvan to make the right decision,” Weir said Thursday. “It’s the local membership who should be able to decide.”

Speaking in Surrey, B.C. Thursday, Singh brushed aside Weir’s intention to seek the nomination, and pointed out the NDP has a vetting process for candidates that come forward to try and run for the party in their home ridings. A party spokesperson told the Star this process includes an examination of personal, political and legal history, and that no candidate can run without the approval of the NDP’s national direcotor and executive officers.

“He can run as an independent,” Singh said. “We had a fair process, I made a decision, and I’m sticking to it.”

Weir is nonetheless continuing to push to return to the NDP fold as his former colleagues finished their three-day meeting in B.C. to strategize for the fall session of Parliament and next year’s general election. Weir said he believes he is best placed to win Regina-Lewvan again for the NDP, and that his main concern is to hold gains the party made in the province, where it won three seats in the 2015 election.

A group of 67 former NDP MLAs and MPs from Saskatchewan has also voiced concerns over Singh’s handling of Weir’s situation and called for his reinstatement as an NDP MP — though Singh told reporters Wednesday that he will not be intimidated into compromising workplace safety by “people of a position of privilege.”

The controversy surrounding Weir began in February, when Singh suspended Weir from caucus after Quebec MP Christine Moore accused him of harassing unnamed women in an email to party colleagues. The party hired Ottawa lawyer Michelle Flaherty to investigate the claims, and Singh announced in May that Flaherty concluded three allegations of sexual harassment and one allegation of harassment were “sustained.”

Singh said at the time that Weir’s public statements — in which he questioned the investigation and the motivations of one of his complainants — showed he was unwilling to take responsibility for his actions. Singh said Weir “did not recognize non-verbal signs” in social situations, and that his behaviour resulted in “significant negative impacts” for the complainants. He added that when Weir “was told his advances were unwanted, he stopped.”

Weir, meanwhile, has maintained he was treated unfairly. On Thursday, he called Flaherty a “relatively activist investigator” who took a broad view of harassment, and reiterated that he was found to have done nothing more than stand too close to people and speak to them for longer than they wanted. He said he has since taken measures Singh suggested, including apologizing and completing sensitivity training, and questioned why the party leader feels his reinstatement could affect workplace safety for NDP staff.

While Flaherty’s report is confidential, a letter from Weir’s sensitivity trainer — provided to the Star by a former Saskatchewan cabinet minister who is publicly defending Weir — says the report characterized Weir’s objectionable behaviour as being on the “less serious” end of the spectrum.

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“Mr. Singh’s rhetoric about an unsafe workplace is totally disconnected from the investigator’s actual findings,” Weir said.

“It’s been a series of mistakes and bad decisions from Mr. Singh.”

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