What’s Current: White House says women who accused Trump of sexual harassment are lying

Image: AP Photo/Andrew Harnik
  • At a briefing earlier today, press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed the official position of the White House regarding sexual harassment and assault allegations against Trump is that the women are lying.
  • Two Indigenous women in Saskatchewan have launched a class-action suit saying they were coerced into undergoing sterilization at provincial hospitals. “Since filing the statement of claim, the lawyer representing the two women said she had heard from more than 40 other women across Saskatchewan with similar experiences, one as recent as 2010:

“The number increases every day…There are some women that it not only happened to them but it happened to their mothers and daughters.’”

  • Two women have accused former President George H.W. Bush of groping them. His spokesperson has issued an apology… Sort of… The statement says:

“To try to put people at ease, the president routinely tells the same joke — and on occasion, he has patted women’s rears in what he intended to be a good-natured manner. Some have seen it as innocent; others clearly view it as inappropriate. To anyone he has offended, President Bush apologizes most sincerely.”

  • Statistics Canada has released a new study that shows one in five sexual assault cases substantiated by Canadian police make it to court. About one in ten result in a conviction.
  • A UK advocacy group is organizing a protest against pregnancy and maternity-related discrimination. The event, called March of the Mummies, is set to take place in six cities on Haloween. A 2015 study found that about one in nine new mothers in the UK are forced out of their jobs.
Lisa Steacy

Lisa Steacy is an Assistant Editor at Feminist Current. She has a B.A. in Women & Gender Studies from the University of Toronto. However, the women she met in her five years as a frontline worker and collective member with Vancouver Rape Relief & Women’s Shelter deserve almost all of the credit for her feminist education. She lives in Vancouver with her partner and their cats.