‘It was an error’: NDP candidate apologizes for social media post

The NDP candidate for Winnipeg South Centre is apologizing after his campaign reposted information online encouraging people to attend a pro-Palestinian protest outside the campaign office of his Liberal opponent.

Jorge Requena Ramos said his campaign’s social media manager reposted the information about the Saturday rally at MP Ben Carr’s office on Pembina Highway. The same post also advertised a Winnipeg South Centre candidates forum at the Winnipeg Community Centre scheduled just before the protest.

“It was an error,” Ramos said Saturday.

“I will definitely have a conversation with my team. I would not have put this out. If Ben wants an apology, I will give it to him.”

Ramos said while people have a right to protest, because he is a candidate running for office, his team shouldn’t have reposted the invitation.

“I support their right to protest outside of Ben’s office,” he said. “But it was obviously an error on our part to share the protest call… I don’t want to encourage people to go there.

“My campaign manager saw it and told (the social media manager) to put it down.”

At past protests at the Liberal incumbent’s office, some have carried signs critical of his proposal for bubble-zone legislation to ban protests outside any “religiously associated facilities.”

The MP, who was elected in a 2023 byelection following the death of his father, Jim Carr, called for the legislation following a protest outside the Asper Jewish Community Campus by a pro-Palestinian group earlier this month. The group was protesting an event featuring two soldiers with the Israel Defense Force who were involved in the offensive in Gaza following Hamas’ cross-border attack in Oct. 2023.

Carr did not attend that event.

He said he’s closed his campaign office “three Saturdays in a row now… in order to ensure a safe environment for my staff and volunteers.” The protests have been organized by the Canadian Palestinian Association of Manitoba.

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When asked if he wanted Ramos to apologize to him, Carr said “we’re all accountable for our actions.

“It’s not my place to offer a view as to how they should be in this instance.”

Carr said he respects the right of protesters to be in front of his office “to speak to the issues of importance to them.

“I would have hoped, however, that politically motivated attempts to interfere with my campaign would not come from others on the ballot. I believe as electoral hopefuls, our efforts are always best spent engaging in positive and respectful dialogue with our constituents.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is a general assignment reporter at the Free Press. He graduated from Western University with a Masters of Journalism in 1985 and worked at the Winnipeg Sun until 1988, when he joined the Free Press. He has served as the Free Press’s city hall and law courts reporter and has won several awards, including a National Newspaper Award. Read more about Kevin.

Every piece of reporting Kevin produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.