Manitoba’s premier is not addressing allegations levelled by MLA Mark Wasyliw, who accused Wab Kinew of grabbing and yanking his arm during a campaign event in his riding in 2019.
Kinew reiterated Thursday his party and the now-independent MLA for Fort Garry had “irreconcilable differences,” but did not respond to questions about the new allegations, repeatedly telling reporters he wished Wasyliw well.
“I think everyone who’s been watching this issue over the past couple of weeks has seen why our caucus has decided to move in a different direction,” the premier said Thursday. “So all I’m going to say is that we wish him well.”
During the first fall sitting of the legislature on Wednesday, Wasyliw claimed Kinew “lunged” at him during a campaign event near Winnipeg’s Victoria Hospital in the summer of 2019.
The MLA said the two got into a disagreement after the now-premier made the “unilateral” announcement he would not reverse closures of emergency rooms which began in 2017.
“He was trying to deflect; he was trying to avoid the conversation, and I wouldn’t let it go,” Wasyliw said in the legislature.
“Then he snapped. He lunged at me. He grabbed my right arm and yanked it down. He screamed at me: ‘I’m the leader. You do what I tell you to do.’
“I was shocked. I mean, we’re a couple middle-aged men. This is a leader of a political party. Did he just assault me in broad daylight in front of witnesses? But he had.”
Not a ‘one-off incident,’ MLA says
Wasyliw said Kinew called him that night upon the insistence of his then chief of staff, offering a “non-apology” he said was almost identical to the one the premier gave at the legislature after PC MLA Obby Khan claimed he swore at him and shoved him during an extended handshake in the legislature last year.
The premier denied those allegations, saying he and Khan only had a “tense verbal exchange.” Shortly after he was expelled from caucus, Wasyliw said Khan was telling the truth, and that the party asked him to “lie for Wab” and refute the allegations.
The NDP announced Wasyliw’s immediate removal from the caucus on Sep. 16, saying the expulsion came after it learned one of Wasyliw’s colleagues at his law firm was defending convicted sexual predator Peter Nygard.
The fall legislature began with the premier apologizing to defence attorneys including Gerri Wiebe — who’s representing the disgraced fashion mogul — for the rationale behind the MLA’s expulsion, though he said it was still accurate.
Wasyliw has previously said he doesn’t believe his removal has anything to do with the Nygard case, calling Kinew was a “dysfunctional and toxic leader.”
On Thursday, the MLA told reporters he didn’t speak publicly about the 2019 incident then because he wasn’t injured and that the issue didn’t require “immediate redress.”
“This was not the crime of the century,” Wasyliw said. “But over the last five years, this wasn’t a one-off incident: This is a pattern of behaviour. And what I’ve noticed with Wab Kinew, that when he’s under pressure and he loses control of a situation, he will act out in an aggressive manner — and he did again with MLA Obby Khan.”
The Progressive Conservatives called for an inquiry into Wasyliw’s accusations Wednesday, ceding some of their question period time to the independent.