Layton slams massage parlour report as 'smears'

This story is from the CBC News

       NDP Leader Jack Layton blasted a Sun TV News media report Friday citing an unnamed source that he was interviewed by police in a suspected Toronto bawdyhouse in 1996, calling it a "smear campaign." "It's unfortunate to see the smear campaign starting in these last few days of the campaign,"

        Layton told reporters before a rally in Courtenay, B.C., as recent polls suggest support for his party is surpassing the Liberals. "Absolutely nothing wrong was done but yet the smears start." Layton said he would press ahead for real change in Ottawa, adding that "this is the kind of thing that people say is wrong with politics today.”

        Layton didn’t take reporters’ questions after the remarks, but referred to a statement released earlier by his wife, NDP candidate Olivia Chow, who also denied her husband was involved in any wrongdoing. "Sixteen years ago my husband went for a massage at a massage clinic that is registered with the city of Toronto. He exercises regularly; he was and remains in great shape and he needed a massage," Chow said in a statement. "I knew about this appointment, as I always do. No one was more surprised than my husband when the police informed him of allegations of potential wrong doing at this establishment.

     "He told me about the incident after it happened. Any insinuation of wrongdoing on the part of my husband is completely and utterly false." A letter from Layton's lawyer also denied any wrongdoing from their client. "The facts are that Mr. Layton had obtained a massage from a massage therapist, but had no knowledge whatsoever that the therapist’s location may have been used for illicit purposes," Brian Iler wrote in a statement. "He does recall being advised by the police at the time that he did nothing wrong, but that the location was questionable, and to be stayed away from. Mr. Layton gave the officer his name and address, and nothing further happened."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canadavotes2011/story/2011/04/29/cv-election-layton.html