Retired MP Romeo Saganash was charged with one count of sexual assault after a woman complained to Winnipeg police. Photo: APTN News
A woman has accused a former New Democrat MP of fondling her, APTN News has learned.
The woman alleged the incident occurred while she and Romeo Diom Saganash were at a meeting in Winnipeg on May 1.
Saganash, 61, was one of several people present when the incident allegedly occurred.
Court documents obtained by APTN News Wednesday show the woman, whose name was redacted, complained to Winnipeg police and Saganash was charged with one count of sexual assault on June 23.
The member of Waswanipi Cree Nation in Quebec was not required to attend Tuesday when the matter was first entered on the administrative docket at the Winnipeg Law Courts. Saganash, who is a lawyer, told APTN late last week that he did not yet have a lawyer to represent him.
The matter is next scheduled to appear on the docket on Oct. 17.
Read more: Former NDP MP facing sexual assault allegation
Saganash retired from politics in 2019 after serving the northern Quebec riding of Abitibi—Baie-James—Nunavik—Eeyou since 2011.
He survived 10 years at residential school, which he blamed, in part, for “a dependence on alcohol” after being escorted off an Air Canada flight for being too drunk to fly in October 2012.
“I am not looking at excuses, but I know that profound scars were left on me because of my time in residential school,” Saganash said in a statement at the time. “I never shied away from that. The death of my friend and mentor, Jack Layton, also greatly affected me.”
In July 2017, Saganash apologized for plagiarizing part of a column he submitted to a national newspaper.
“In drafting my letter on my thoughts on Canada 150, a mistake was made by which ideas that were expressed by someone else were not given proper credit,” Saganash said. “I take full responsibility for this omission.”
He was the NDP’s Indigenous Affairs critic at that time.
Saganash was “previously a member” of the Circle of Survivors for the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials co-administered by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) and the Government of Canada.
“He no longer serves as a member and does not have a role with the NCTR,” a spokesperson said in an email to APTN Wednesday.
The federal NDP did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
The crime of sexual assault includes a wide range of unwanted acts from inappropriate touching to rape, with penalties from probation to prison.
