DURHAM -- The woman to whom Durham NDP candidate Andrew McKeever inappropriate comments to in a Facebook group discussion says she’s supporting McKeever in his “transition” to agreeing with his own party’s stance on both war and U.S. war resisters coming to Canada.

The comments have the Liberal party calling for Mr. McKeever to step down or be fired, but the woman to whom the comments were made says that should stop.

In July, 2008, Facebook posts to a group aimed at supporting U.S. war resisters in Canada, Mr. McKeever refers to “American crybabies who are trying to turn this country into a hotel.” He then goes on to make a number of comments about the group’s female administrator, Krystalline Kraus, including one in which he hypothesizes about why she might support allowing war resisters to remain in Canada.

“Maybe that is why Krystalline Kraus is so interested in this topic . . . having had no real change to get l___ by any domestic male, she needs to encourage others, new meat as it were,” Mr. McKeever wrote.   

Later, he makes another vulgar statement, but it isn’t clear to whom it is addressed --- Ms. Kraus, or a male member of the group.

“Answer a f______ question you c___,” Mr. McKeever wrote.  “I can guarantee if I ever see you face to face I will make you squeal for the same authorities that you have such a (baseless) disdain for.”

The thread has a number of additional comments by Mr. McKeever, many of them using similar language, repeatedly referring to other posters as “f______ knobs.”

Screen captures of the comments, which have since been removed from Facebook, were distributed by Liberal sources last week.

Ms. Kraus describes herself as an anti-war activist, and said she had never come into contact with Mr. McKeever prior to his comments on the Facebook group’s discussion page.

“He was one of those faceless, hide-behind-the-Internet disembodied voices,” she said.

In the past week, since the comments came to light, Ms. Kraus has received and accepted an apology from Mr. McKeever. That should be enough to have the Liberal party stop commenting on the situation, she said. The Liberal party should “stop this tit-for-tat candidate battle and work with the NDP to confront the real threat of a pro-war, pro-Bush Conservative party majority in this election,” Ms. Kraus said in a prepared statement.

That’s not to say she’s OK with the comments, Ms. Kraus said in an interview Monday.

“As a woman, I can’t let somebody talk to me that way, or any woman that way,” Ms. Kraus said.

But it’s time to move on, she said.

“I know that for myself, I’ve accepted (Mr. McKeever’s) apology because I feel that forgiveness is the best weapon against hatred,” she said.

Ms. Kraus said she was angry at first.

“The ultimate goal is for him not to be humiliated but to bring him over and have him not feel the way he did three months ago, and support him in that transition,” Ms. Kraus said.

Mr. McKeever has not responded to multiple requests for interview.

His comments on U.S. war resisters are in stark contrast to the stance of the party for whom he now, 2 1/2 months later, is a candidate.

In June the House of Commons passed a non-binding parliamentary motion sponsored by NDP incumbent Olivia Chow (Trinity-Spadina) calling on the Conservative government to let the Iraq war resisters stay in the country instead of being deported to the U.S., where many would face jail time for abandoning their military duties.

The comments had members of the Liberal party calling for the Durham NDP candidate’s resignation. But the national NDP said last week that since Mr. McKeever has apologized, he may continue to run.

“He has reformed his views,” said NDP spokeswoman Kathleen Monk. “He no longer believes the things he said on the website, and in fact has apologized for all the comments he made on Facebook.

“It was a fulsome apology.”