Winnipeg police investigating fire at Nahanni Fontaine’s constituency office

Winnipeg police and firefighters are investigating a Tuesday morning fire at the constituency office of Manitoba Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine.

The Winnipeg Police Service’s major crimes unit have yet to identify a suspect, and no arrests have been made.

Firefighters were called to Fontaine’s office, on Main Street in the St. John’s constituency, just before 5 a.m. They arrived to find smoke coming from the building. The blaze was declared under control at 5:36 a.m. after crews entered and fought the fire from inside.

No occupants were found, and no injuries were reported.

“This is a serious matter that is currently under police investigation, so we will not be commenting further at this time,” a spokesperson for the minister said in a statement.

Authorities say the scene was still being processed Tuesday morning, and northbound Main Street was closed to traffic.

“Violence or intimidation has no place in our shared journey toward reconciliation and justice,” said Grand Chief Jerry Daniels with the Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO).

“At this time, it is more important than ever to stand together as Nations, neighbours, and relatives.”

The incident comes mere days after windows at the cabinet minister’s office were smashed. And it’s the third incident of the summer, according to the owner of the business next door.

“It started off, I guess, beginning of the summer, something about her views on abortion, someone didn’t like,” said Matthew Slobodzian, the owner of Pizzaland. “Started with the back door getting kicked in. Then I think it was about a week-and-a-half ago that someone smashed out the front windows and tried to torch it from the front. And then as we know, last night now, someone tried the same thing from the back and was able to ignite it successfully.”

Slobodzian says the crimes at Fontaine’s office are hurting the whole neighbourhood.

“The neighbours and the tenants here, we got to live with all the chaos going on and it’s kind of unfortunate because we want to keep the community as peaceful as possible,” he said.

Slobodzian claims Fontaine and her staff have not been very present at the building throughout the summer.

It all comes as Fontaine faced backlash twice recently. First, the minister came under fire for comments made about a sign-language interpreter at a graduation event in June – saying the woman was distracting and should not have been on stage.

Fontaine was then criticized earlier this month for sharing a critical post about Charlie Kirk on Instagram.