City police charge 72-year-old man after threatening, racist letters sent to Indigenous, female cabinet minister By: Carol Sanders Posted: 10:46 AM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2026 Last Modified: 6:31 PM CDT Tuesday, Apr. 21, 2026 Updates

Cabinet minister and Indigenous MLA Nahanni Fontaine said threatening, racist letters that were sent to her last summer are “pretty violent and grotesque.”

The member for St. Johns in Winnipeg spoke to reporters at the legislature Tuesday after Winnipeg police announced the arrest of a 72-year-old Winnipeg man alleged to have sent multiple letters to Fontaine between July and September.

On Saturday, major crimes investigators executed a search warrant at a residence in the northwest area of the city, where the man was arrested. He is facing charges of criminal harassment and uttering threats and was released on an undertaking. Police continue to investigate and ask anyone with information to contact 204-986-6219.

Fontaine said she doesn’t know the accused but she’s familiar with vile messages threatening violence.

Last fall, she and Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Minister Bernadette Smith, also Indigenous, spoke out after a spate of fires and vandalism at their NDP constituency offices, saying they would not be intimidated by what they called acts of political violence.

In November, police charged 35-year-old Jesse Robert Shawn Wheatland in the attacks on the constituency offices. Wheatland was also charged in several fires that damaged downtown restaurants.

Fontaine, who has been in the legislature for a decade, recalled that weeks after she was first elected, a man contacted her constituency office to tell her she better “watch her mouth.”

“It’s been ongoing,” she said, noting the racist, violent threats escalated after the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Something like a light switch went off and people felt more emboldened to send things, to say things… and I think that it’s just gotten exponentially worse.”

She said the vast majority of objectionable direct messages come from men.

“There’s levels of anti-Indigenous, anti-Black racism, misogyny that plays into this need for predominantly men to come into our space and to level these attacks and real violence.”

“There’s levels of anti-Indigenous, anti-Black racism, misogyny that plays into this need for predominantly men to come into our space and to level these attacks and real violence,” she said, adding it’s not OK to hurl abuse at politicians and shouldn’t be accepted.

“Yes, I’m a public servant, but so are teachers. So are police officers. You wouldn’t go up to a police officer and say the things that you’ve been saying to me. You wouldn’t go up to a teacher. But for some reason, as politicians, we’re just expected to take it.”

Fontaine’s not alone, according to Equal Voice, a registered charity that aims to improve gender representation in Canadian politics through education, training, research, network building and leadership development.

“Both online and physical harassment of women in political life, and at all levels of government, is a growing trend across the country,” Lindsay Brumwell, the charity’s interim executive director, said in an email from Saskatoon.

“We also know that (people who are from) visible minorities are disproportionately affected.”

She said women leave politics at the federal level an average of three years earlier than their male counterparts who depart by choice.

“Getting women elected is essential, but so is keeping them there,” she said.

“Both online and physical harassment of women in political life, and at all levels of government, is a growing trend across the country.”

The threatening letters to Fontaine that led to the arrest and charges were sent to her at the Legislative Building, where ramped-up security measures have been relaxed recently.

In 2021, barricades were established at the base of the steps to the main entrance after a man drove a truck up the stairs.

When the so-called “freedom convoy” protest set up camp near the legislature in winter 2022, barricades were put in place at the main driveway entrance with protective services officers checking all vehicles entering the grounds.

The barricades have since been removed, although metal detectors remain at the main entrance and visitors still aren’t free to roam around inside the building.

“Security at the people’s building is always evolving, it’s a priority for us to keep everyone safe when they visit,” a statement from Justice Minister Matt Wiebe said at the time.

“Security will now be delivered through a combination of flexible and responsible measures, which may include a presence at the entrance to the front parking lot when required.”

“Some politicians are more lightning rods who attract strong reactions in segments of the population.

Fontaine said Tuesday that she feels safe there.

“I have a lot of faith and confidence in the good people that are at security,” she said, adding it’s important that the legislature remains the “people’s building.”

“We don’t want to create like a fortress that nobody can come in, and people don’t feel like this is accessible to them.”

Finding the right balance between relatively free public access and adequate security isn’t easy, said University of Manitoba political studies professor emeritus Paul Thomas.

“We live in increasingly polarized, angry and violent social and political cultures,” he said. “Politicians are mistrusted by many and despised by a few… Some politicians are more lightning rods who attract strong reactions in segments of the population.

“Politicians are not blameless for this hostility — they both reflect and amplify it by their personal, cruel attacks on one another.”

Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan, who’s part of the Black, Indigenous and People of Colour community, condemned the racist threats targeting Fontaine.

Khan told reporters that he’s felt attacked “numerous times” in the legislative chamber.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca