Manitoba MP Niki Ashton made two trips to Greece
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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/01/2021 (1752 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
OTTAWA — Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton travelled to Greece this summer, in addition to the Christmastime trip that caused the party to strip her of official critic roles.
“In the summer, I went to Greece to be with my grandmother, my giagia, who had gone through a second life-and-death surgery,” Ashton wrote in a Wednesday statement from Greece.
Canadian officials have urged citizens to not leave the country since COVID-19 was declared a pandemic in March.
Ashton lost her roles last week as NDP critic for transport and public ownership and as deputy critic for gender issues after travelling to Greece in December without informing party leadership.
This week, the federal NDP said it was not aware of any of its three Manitoba MPs leaving the province in any other instance, other than trips to Ottawa for parliamentary sittings.
However, NDP whip Rachel Blaney said in a Wednesday statement that Ashton had sought approval for a previous trip to Greece in the summer.
“With the urgent situation with her grandmother and the low numbers of COVID-19, this travel was approved,” Blaney wrote.
Ashton stressed she followed the 14-day federal quarantine rule when she returned home this summer, and she will do the same when she returns from Greece this time.
The MP for Churchill—Keewatinook Aski said she also visited Winnipeg to see a separate ailing relative during the time Manitoba banned non-essential travel to the northern part of the province.
That travel ban started in April, but allowed people living in the North to return home.
Ashton said she visited her other grandmother, the mother of former Manitoba MLA Steve Ashton, at Victoria General Hospital in June. Her grandmother was then transferred Misericordia Place personal care home, where she died shortly after.
“I was the only direct family member that could be her caregiver because I was the only one in Manitoba,” Ashton wrote. “Nobody else could be there for my nana because of COVID restrictions.”
dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca