Manitoba MLA accuses the opposition Leader of shoving and swearing at him during a cultural event

“I feel hurt, disrespected, threatened, unsafe.” Those words coming from Manitoba minister Obby Khan Thursday afternoon, after accusing opposition NDP leader Wab Kinew of swearing at him and shoving him at a public event inside the Legislature following a tense exchange.

The allegations come from a handshake between Khan and Kinew at an NDP-sponsored event marking the first official Turban Day in the province. Both elected officials offered different takes on what happened.

“The leader of the opposition pulled me in and said, ‘You piece of s—. How dare you politicized this f—ing event. What you did is f—ing wrong. We are never inviting you again to a f—ing event’,” said Khan. “I leaned over, we were close to close, I said, ‘now is not the time for this. We can talk about this later.’ And he would not let me leave. He pulled my hand in, and again repeated, ‘you piece of s—. How dare you do this. We invited you here’.”

Members of the PC Caucus were visibly upset as Khan expressed these allegations. Khan said Kinew used multiple curses, and insults and concluded the exchange with a physical shove to his stomach.

Kinew acknowledged there was a tense exchange but denies these allegations.

“I do dispute the facts. Significant details were left out about what the member of Fort Whyte said,” said Kinew. “What happened between the two of us was partisan bickering, to be blunt.”

Some accusations of aggressive behaviour have been made in the legislature in years past. Kinew apologized in 2018 after confronting Steven Fletcher and telling him to keep his mouth shut. Manitoba Health Minister Audrey Gordon accused Kinew of shoving her back in 2016.

“I would say it’s a sign of high stress, also in the fact that we are in an election year,” said Christopher Adams, political science professor at the University of Manitoba.

Adams says this accusation against Kinew feeds into the strategy of the PCs going into the October provincial election.

“I think this is something part of the political parties strategy of the PCs in this election, will be to position Wab Kinew as someone who is dangerous and can’t control his anger.”

Adams characterizes incidents like these as childish.

“It makes it very difficult for people to decide if they want to run for politics because a career in politics is not a safe game for many people.”