Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has agreed to pay a female accuser more than two million dollars for a non-disclosure agreement, just days before he faces reelection in a general election, The Buffalo Chronicle claims.
According to a report by The Buffalo Chronicle, attorneys representing Trudeau signed a 2.25 million CDN ($1.7 million USD) non-disclosure agreement with a female accuser, who claims that the Canadian prime minister had a year-and-a-half-long affair with her while she was a student at Vancouver’s West Point Grey Academy, where Trudeau taught French and math from 1999 to 2001.
The report claimed that the 18-month affair began in the summer of 2000, ending in the middle of the school year in 2001, when the then 29-year-old Trudeau abruptly left the Academy’s staff.
Trudeau has denied any wrong-doing, and claimed that his sudden departure from the Academy was for career-related reasons.
The accuser, said to be the daughter of a prominent Canadian businessman, has not been publicly identified.
But some have questioned the report, suggesting the claims may be false.
Fenwick McKelvey, a communications professor at Concordia University and a researcher into disinformation, told The National Observer the Chronicle's accusations were merely the latest in a string of false claims.
The Chronicle publisher Matthew Ricchiazzi pushed back on the claim, however, telling the Observer that "nearly a dozen" people working in Canadian politics were consulted for the story.
Trudeau, who was first elected in 2015, faces reelection on October 21st. Recent opinion polls show a tight race between Trudeau’s ruling Liberal Party and the Conservatives. A Nanos Research poll conducted on Wednesday found the Conservatives with a 3.7-point lead, 36.9 to 33.2, while a Leger poll conducted Tuesday showed the two parties tied at 31 apiece.