Rachel Marsden (born December 2, 1974) is a Canadian media personality and political commentator, known for her blunt conservative positions and for her involvement in several scandals. She is currently a columnist for the Toronto Sun whose columns periodically appear in U.S. publications.

Contents [hide]
1 Education and media career
2 Harassment controversies
2.1 Liam Donnelly
2.2 Patricia O'Hagan
2.3 Neil Boyd
2.4 Michael Morgan
3 Marsden's Media Profile
4 Political work
5 External links



Education and media career
Marsden attended Simon Fraser University, where she graduated in 1997 with a degree in biology and a minor in French. Subsequent education includes a diploma in broadcast journalism from the British Columbia Institute of Technology (2000)[1] and a program for conservative journalists offered at the National Journalism Center (2003) She returned to SFU in 1998 and enrolled in a post-baccalaureate program in criminology.[2].[3] .


Rachel Marsden, right, with Bill O'Reilly on The O'Reilly Factor.Marsden was involved in various capacities in local radio and TV. One version of her c.v. claims that she was a production assistant and assistant to Connie Chung at ABC News' 20/20 in New York.[1] ABC, however, has denied that Marsden was a paid employee, but she may have been an intern.[4]


Marsden has often courted controversy, and some have suggested that she has modelled her personal style after American media personality Ann Coulter, whom she has described as "a friend". In recent years, Marsden has been a guest on The O'Reilly Factor on Fox News, where she has offered a Canadian point of view, and on CNBC's Dennis Miller program.[5] For two months in the summer of 2005, she had a twice-weekly column in the National Post. Soon after, she began a regular column in the Toronto Sun. Her writing has also appeared in The New York Post,[6] David Horowitz's Front Page Magazine, United Press International, as well as the online newspapers Canada Free Press, NewsMax.com, and PoliticalUSA.


Harassment controversies

Liam Donnelly
Main article: Marsden-Donnelly harassment case

Marsden first came to national attention as a student at Simon Fraser University in 1997 when her accusations against swim coach Liam Donnelly of a date rape became public.[7]

Marsden and Donnelly laid complaints against each another with the SFU harassment office in 1995. On the advice of his lawyer, however, Donnelly withdrew his own complaint and refused to attend the university sexual harassment tribunal's hearing. The panel found him guilty in October, 1996, and he was fired on May 23, 1997.[8] Marsden was given $12,000 to compensate her for the impact on her life.[9]

Donnelly appealed the ruling and went public with his side of the story. He denied any romantic relationship with Marsden and asserted that she had in fact been harassing him. He claimed that Marsden showered him with unsolicited gifts, including provocative pictures of herself[10] and a subscription to Playboy.[11] She also had sent him emails with explicit offers of sex.[12] (These came a month after Marsden claimed Donnelly had raped her.)

SFU reversed its decision, rehired Donnelly, and paid his legal fees of $60,000.[13] The University issued a statement that Donnelly's original firing had been based solely on Marsden's testimony, but cast doubt on her veracity. [14]

The case attracted much media attention. The legitimacy of the university's investigative procedures and the conclusions drawn by the panel were cast into doubt. An internal SFU review discovered that the university's harassment policy coordinator Patricia O'Hagan had a personal relationship with Marsden and had shown her drafts of the initial report.[15]

As a result of the case, SFU radically revised its policies for dealing with harassment.[16] Eleven harassment cases were reopened and their decisions reversed. University president John Stubbs first took medical leave[17] and then resigned in the wake of the scandal.[18]


Patricia O'Hagan
Marsden's complaint to the SFU harassment office had been handled by that office's director, Patricia O'Hagan, who later claimed Marsden showered her with unwanted attention. However, during the university's examination of its own procedures, SFU's administrator had faulted O'Hagan for her conduct with Marsden (see above). In October 1997, O'Hagan, who at that point had left the university's employ, complained to the Vancouver Sun that over the preceding 12 months, Marsden had sent her gifts and telephoned her some 400 times.[19]


Neil Boyd
In 1998, Marsden returned to SFU to study criminology. In May 1999, she was warned by the university to avoid locations where Neil Boyd, a criminology professor at SFU, might be found. Four months earlier, Boyd went to the police with copies of e-mail and voice mail from Marsden. He complained she had been asking Boyd, who was married, for dates. The university also asked Marsden to remove comments about Liam Donnelly (see above) from her website.[20] After the initial warnings, no further action was taken against Marsden.


Michael Morgan
In November, 2002, Marsden was arrested and charged with criminal harassment of Vancouver radio personality Michael Morgan.[21] They had been romantically involved in 2001 and 2002, but after their break-up Morgan complained to the police about harassment by Marsden, including "vindictive and threatening" messages on his answering machine. During the investigation it was learned Marsden surreptitiously set up Morgan's email to automatically forward to her copies of his incoming email.[22] In 2004 she pled guilty [2] to criminal harassment and was given a conditional discharge that included one year of probation. She completed the sentence and has no criminal record.


Marsden's Media Profile
In 2005, Marsden was featured on "Sticks and Stones," a documentary on CBC Television's The Fifth Estate about increasing political polarization in the media of the United States, especially in shows such as The O'Reilly Factor and Fox News. After Marsden asserted her right to criticize the personal lives of public figures on her radio show, reporter Bob McKeown challenged her about the controversies involving allegations of harassment against Liam Donnelly and Michael Morgan (see above). Marsden insisted that her personal life was "not relevant to what I do" and declined to comment further.

The conservative dailies National Post and the Toronto Sun have hired her. The Western Standard has been highly critical of her;[23] the Canada Free Press has been more sympathetic, its editor Judi McLeod describing her personal controversies as "trouble with bogus boyfriends." Conservative media in the U.S. have been accepting of Marsden, and she is one of the few Canadian pundits to have exposure in American neo-conservative publications and TV.


Political work
According to her c.v.,[3] Marsden was once a member of the Young Liberals. By the time she had entered the public stage as a pundit, however, she was a conservative.

For a time in 2003-4, Marsden worked in the constituency office of Conservative MP Gurmant Grewal under the name "Elle Henderson". She was at the time facing criminal charges in the Michael Morgan affair (see above). Grewal had hired her in December, 2003, over objections from Conservative central office.[24] When the Vancouver Sun discovered her true identity and contacted Grewal, Marsden's contract was terminated. Grewal explained that the timing of the termination was a coincidence and that Marsden had completed the work she was hired for.[25].

In November 2005, the National Post reported that a regional Conservative organizer approached Marsden to run as the party's candidate in the 2006 election against federal New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton in the downtown Toronto riding of Toronto-Danforth, but Marsden declined the opportunity.


External links
Official site
A curriculum vita (PDF file); an archived, earlier c.v.
Audio interview with THECOMMENTARY.CA: Sunday, 31 October 2004
Sticks and Stones the fifth estate examines the state of punditry in the US. Includes an extensive interview with Marsden.
R. vs Marsden Transcript of the court's 2004 judgement against Marsden and the finding of fact in her criminal case.
Liam Donnelly’s Conviction by Prejudice: Lessons for Harassment Policy paper from the Fraser Institute.
The Killing-off-Rachel Rally, from Canada Free Press
The Strange Allure of Ms. Marsden: How does a serial stalker, convict and fraud artist end up Canada's hottest young conservative pundit? Quite easily, actually by Kevin Steel published in the Western Standard, July 11, 2005. (PDF file)