Manitoba premier says Conservative MLA mocked his speech on protecting rights for vulnerable groups

As Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was speaking on legislation his government is proposing to protect vulnerable groups from getting their rights “trampled,” a sound was heard from across the aisle in the opposition seats. “Do you know what is different about people on this side of the House?” Kinew asked. “The entitlement isn’t there because we had to fight for what we have. It was never given to people on this side of the House. In living memory, people couldn’t vote…” Right after, members of the legislative assembly witnessed Jeff Wharton, Conservative MLA for Red River North, making a crying sound and gesture. It threw Kinew off guard. “I want the permanent record of this assembly to show that when I was talking about the fact that my father was not allowed to vote in this country, the member for Red River North said in a sarcastic voice: waah, waah,” Kinew said. Kinew called it a “complete lack of respect.” Wharton called it a misunderstanding. “During the Premier’s comments and answers to a question that he didn’t answer, he had mentioned that I was making sounds towards his father not being able to vote. I disagree with that comment,” he said before being interrupted by the speaker in the assembly. “[I} would ask the premier at his earliest convenience to table that–those comments in Hansard.” Cody Groat, an assistant professor of history and Indigenous studies at Western University in Ontario, said what happened was “very dehumanizing.” He said disenfranchisement was the denial of the right to engage and push back against the Canadian political system. “Inuit gained the right to vote in 1950, and again Status Indians not until 1960,” he said. “There was this heated back and forth and almost always the question was were Indigenous people mature enough and were we civilized enough to express our opinions and vote in the Canadian electoral system.” APTN News reached out to Progressive Conservatives for comment, but did not hear back. Continue Reading