Premier questions disclosure rules

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This article was published 22/09/2017 (2948 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister is urging the re-examination of election candidate and party disclosure rules in light of new information that has been reported about NDP Leader Wab Kinew’s past.

Pallister said Friday it’s worth looking into whether candidates and political parties should be required to disclose past criminal charges and convictions when a candidate seeks office.

“If the PCs, Liberals or NDP or any other party have information on a candidate, in respect of criminal activity for example, or alleged criminal activity, should that be available? I think that’s a topic worth discussing,” he told reporters after a news conference on tax reform.

Before Kinew was elected leader of the provincial NDP last Saturday, it came to light that he had faced two domestic assault charges 14 years ago. They were later stayed.

Other previous run-ins with the law had also not been disclosed, although he had admitted to convictions for impaired driving and assaulting a cab driver in his best-selling book.

The provincial NDP revealed this week that it knew about Kinew’s court file, including the charges for domestic assault that had been stayed, before Kinew ran for office in Fort Rouge in the 2016 provincial election.

Pallister says an all-party group should consider if that kind of information should be made known to the public before an election.

“I’m not trying to conclude what the law should be or even if it should be changed,” the premier said.

“But what I am saying is that I think a lot of Manitobans are concerned that there may have been information there which would have influenced their vote in the last election. And they were not made aware of it until after.

“I do not say this specifically in any way to denigrate Mr. Kinew’s attempts to make himself a better person. That’s not at all why I’m raising this. I’m raising it because I think the system in Manitoba should protect all candidates, all parties and all voters as best as possible.”

Pallister said any change in law would have to balance privacy considerations with the public’s right to certain information.

“I’m very concerned about the privacy rights of people. I want to make sure that we’re not infringing… unnecessarily into the private lives of individuals. But when you step up to run for election, certain things come to light — obviously, in my case and in the cases of others.”

Pallister said there should be a “very, very well-understood clear process so that no candidate, no political party can be seen to be deceptive in the future…”

Meanwhile, the premier was asked about the launch by his party last weekend of a website attacking Kinew.

The website, WabOn.ca, lists his court record and contains copies of his tweets and song lyrics from his days as a hip hop artist that disparage women and gays.

The premier said the Progressive Conservative party’s intention is “to get the facts out there,” as with any other political communication.

“The facts are there. They’re a matter of record,” Pallister said, noting no public money went into the creation of the website.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca