Premier Wab Kinew says he will not remove Families Minister Nahanni Fontaine from cabinet following comments she shared on Instagram on the shooting death of U.S. conservative activist Charlie Kirk that have raised eyebrows in Manitoba.
The post describes Kirk, a polarizing figure in U.S. politics, as a “racist, xenophobic, transphobic, sexist white nationalist mouthpiece,” and says, “I extend no sympathy for people like that.”
It then offers empathy toward Kirk’s young children and says, “may all of our children grow up to live in a country that values their lives enough to take gun violence seriously.”
Fontaine has since posted an apology in an Instagram story, saying, “violence has no place in our democracy. Political debate is achieved with words and discussion,” and encouraging empathy — even with those we don’t agree with.
Kinew says it would be too easy to demote Fontaine.
“It is a much harder task to say we are going to work through this together and I am going to try and help you understand why we need to bring people together and not divide people at this time,” Kinew said.
I don’t believe in cancel culture and I think people need to be brought along and shown if we want a society that is one where we can express ourself freely and have debate then we need to be showing empathy and compassion for people even when we don’t agree with them.”
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Earlier in the day, Kinew — who publicly condemned Kirk’s killing after the news broke Wednesday — told 680 CJOB’s The Start that the comments in the original post Fontaine shared fly in the face of his own views on the subject.
“I’m hearing you read the words, and they’re terrible and they run completely against the thoughts that I was sharing, which is that we have to have empathy for other people in our society,” the premier said.
“Our whole thing is supposed to be compassion…. We’re always making the argument on the left that, no, you can’t come in and throw people on the hood of a cop car right away, (you’ve) got to understand where they’re coming from … but somebody says they don’t agree with abortion or somebody says they want to have gun laws be less restrictive … and now all of a sudden the compassion disappears? I don’t understand that.”
Opposition MLA Kelvin Goertzen said a conversation isn’t enough. He told 680 CJOB’s Connecting Winnipeg that although he has also worked with Fontaine — on the other side of the aisle — for many years, he hopes the premier will ask for her resignation.
“I’ve served in the legislature for a long time with Minister Fontaine,” he said.
“I don’t believe I’ve ever called for her resignation or for her to be removed from a position — either in opposition or in cabinet — but I’m doing so today.
“This is not just a political story, it’s a human story. It’s about a wife who lost a husband, children who’ve lost a father … for Minister Fontaine to not understand that and see that first is both concerning and also extremely disappointing.”
Goertzen said he interpreted the social media post as trying to “normalize or justify” Kirk’s murder — something he feels doesn’t reflect the temperament of a minister of the Crown.
“Mr. Kinew has to demonstrate, if he truly believes in ‘one Manitoba’ like he says he believes in ‘one Manitoba,’ that the minister has to be removed from cabinet.”
Goertzen said he’s seen a shift in politics over the last 20 years, becoming much more personal and divisive than ever before.
Global Winnipeg reached out to Fontaine’s office for an interview but the request was denied.
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