Pallister won’t answer on abortion pill, freedom of press

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This article was published 23/04/2018 (2890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PREMIER Brian Pallister faced questions about his government’s positions on the new abortion pill, pharmacare and whether he believes in freedom of the press in a free-wheeling budget committee meeting Monday.

Pallister was accused of being a “part-time premier” by the Opposition NDP last week after it failed to get him to appear for Executive Council estimates. During estimates, Opposition MLAs get to grill ministers about their budgets, but by tradition can ask about any government policy.

In a 55-minute session, the premier refused to answer questions from NDP MLA Nahanni Fontaine about the government’s policy on the abortion pill.

Fontaine pressed the premier to make the pregnancy-termination medication Mifegymiso free to all Manitoba women and girls who seek it. Six other provinces, including British Columbia, Alberta, New Brunswick, Ontario, Quebec and Nova Scotia, already do so, she said.

“I will remind the premier that Mifegymiso is considered the game-changer in reproductive health,” Fontaine said, noting that Manitoba will pay for it only at locations that currently offer surgical abortions.

Pallister referred the St. Johns MLA to his minister of health, Kelvin Goertzen, who was not at the session. Goertzen has referred abortion questions in past to Rochelle Squires, the minister responsible for the status of women.

“There’s been confusion over who has that file. Is it the health minister? Is it the minister for the status of women?” Fontaine asked. “Is it the premier that makes the decisions? I’m asking the premier.”

Pallister, while avoiding Fontaine’s gaze, went on the attack, saying if the NDP MLA was “interested in standing up for the rights of girls and women, she might urge her leader (Wab Kinew) to release the analysis” that her party commissioned some time ago into alleged sexual harassment within the NDP caucus.

He was referring to accusations against former NDP finance minister Stan Struthers. The NDP has promised to release a preliminary report by a two-person commission into the harassment complaints at its annual general meeting in Brandon next month.

Meanwhile, Kinew spent much of the near-hour-long session questioning Pallister about his views on a proposed national pharmacare program.

The premier was largely non-committal about such a program, although he said he was “not resistant” to greater provincial co-operation in the delivery of health-care programs.

Pallister said that private insurance companies are unlikely to give up the portion of the prescription drug business they handle without a fight. He also wondered where government was going to come up with the money to pay for such a program.

Pallister also was asked if he believes in freedom of the press, given his threat to sue the Winnipeg Free Press for defamation over stories about whether he has paid all the taxes owing on his Costa Rica vacation home.

“It is my view that having freedom of the press is one of the more important human rights in ensuring there’s a lever to hold the powerful to account,” Kinew said, suggesting that the threat of legal action “continues to cast a chill, potentially, over the reporting that this newspaper outlet does.”

Pallister decided to focus his response on “slanderous” attacks by the NDP in the legislature on the issue. “The member (Kinew) stated three times in the legislative assembly that I haven’t paid my taxes and that is false. I will always defend my integrity against false statements…”

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca