An Edmonton-area municipal councillor says he is being blackmailed with sexually explicit photos that he acknowledges are real.
On Tuesday night, Strathcona County councillor Jason Gariepy admitted the images being circulated are authentic, and said they stemmed from an explicit relationship he had conducted online with a woman he says he never met.
I cannot accept the deliberate actions to bully and coerce me
He said they are an attempt to “blackmail” him out of public life, according to the Sherwood Park News. They come only weeks before Mr. Gariepy is to seek re-election in the Oct. 21 Alberta municipal elections.
Wikimedia CommonsStrathcona County is a relatively large jurisdiction located just east of the Alberta capital, home to the suburb of Sherwood Park.
“I accept responsibility and apologize for my actions, but I cannot accept the deliberate actions to bully, intimidate and coerce me,” he said, according to the newspaper.
Both Mr. Gariepy’s wife and Strathcona County mayor Linda Osinchuk were reportedly sent a package that included explicit emails and texts written by Mr. Gariepy, as well as nude photos.
TwitterStrathcona County mayor Linda Osinchuk was reportedly sent a package that included explicit emails and texts written by Jason Gariepy, as well as nude photos.
Mr. Gariepy’s admission appeared to be a sudden twist to normally staid Strathcona County municipal politics.
The county’s Tuesday night council meeting, at which Mr. Gariepy reportedly appeared visibly agitated, opened with prayer by a bishop from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints before launching into a presentation on weed management.
Strathcona County is a relatively large jurisdiction located just east of the Alberta capital, home to the suburb of Sherwood Park.
“I don’t think this community lives that way and works that way,” Ms. Osinchuk told the Sherwood Park News in the wake of the revelations.
As of Wednesday morning, Mr. Gariepy, who has been a councillor since 2007, had suspended his Twitter account.
Three years ago, Mr. Gariepy was in the news because he had his Blackberry and computer service suspended after he used his official email to criticize a county news release.
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“We’re so dependent on technology now that you cannot be an elected official without having access to BlackBerry and your phone and everything else,” he told CBC at the time.
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“When you’re locked out of your computer, you’re locked out of the lives of your residents.”
The incident is similar — albeit on a much smaller scale — to the saga of former New York congressman Anthony Weiner. In 2011, Mr. Weiner was forced to resign from the U.S. House of Representatives after it was revealed he had been sending sexually explicit images of himself to multiple women online.
Earlier this year, while Mr. Weiner was attempting to rehabilitate his career with a run for New York mayor, additional evidence emerged showing that he had continued sending sexually explicit images to women online. The second revelation ultimately helped to sink his campaign for mayor in Tuesday’s Democratic Party primary.
National Post
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