A TV reporterwas not impressed by an unidentified man who snuck up to her while she was in the midst of a live broadcast from the Osheaga music festival in Montreal and gave her a kiss. Startled and visibly creeped out, Radio-Canada journalist Valerie-Micaela Bain recoiled and pushed the man away. The whole thing can be seen in the video she posted to her Facebook page, above, at the :37 mark.
Following the incident, Bain took to Facebook to share her viewpoint on what happened, and explained why the uninvited kiss was actually sexual harassment.
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“In the end I would like to understand his gesture is unacceptable,” Bain wrote on Facebook. “No one can dare to go into my bubble and kiss me while I’m on the air. It’s not adorable or flattering. They would not kiss me if they crossed me on the street or anywhere else. It’s not suddenly acceptable because I’m a woman in front of a live camera on TV.”
She added: “Kissing someone without consent is no. You’re bothering me, I’m working.”
Bain is hoping that the power of social media can help her track the guy down so he can be held accountable.
“Don’t worry,” she wrote, “I trust the power of social networks and the police to find you.”
On Monday, Bain returned to Facebook to reveal that the unidentified man came forward and apologized to her.
“I received a written apology from this man who tried to kiss me on Friday. For me this is the end of the incident,” wrote Bain, who is no longer planning to press charges. “This is very personal. I denounced the inappropriate gesture on social networks, I don’t feel the need to go any further.”
In the letter, the man expresses “regret and the feeling of shame,” admitting that he “disrespected you personally, by imposing on you in front of your audience.”
“I broke a limit by a despicable conduct,” he writes, adding that his intention was not to be sexually abusive: “I disrespected you as a woman and your profession,” he adds. “I sent as a message that it was funny, if not normal, to kiss on the cheek a journalist during a report. I wanted to make my entourage laugh by posing a shameless act. Another thousand apologies. I can’t find any words that justify my gesture. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
