A day after a majority of Progressive Conservative MLAs refused to stand in the chamber following a statement recognizing the Transgender Day of Remembrance, the backlash reverberated through the legislature, with government MLAs repeatedly heckling the Tories and the premier calling the PC leader a “bigot.”
The governing NDP spent much of Friday’s question period condemning the Tories for staying seated after the address, calling it a harmful act against transgender people.
Meanwhile, PC Leader Obby Khan said he remained seated because the speech was politically charged and touched on other matters, rather than commemorating and honouring the transgender community.
“If it was about the lives lost and the suffering from the trans and marginalized community, I would have 100 per cent stood up for that,” Khan told reporters.
“It was not. It was politically charged and motivated, exactly what this NDP government wanted to do.”
The Thursday speech was read by Kirkfield Park MLA Logan Oxenham, the first openly transgender person elected to Manitoba’s legislature.
He began by acknowledging Transgender Day of Remembrance as “a solemn day to honour the lives of transgender and gender-diverse people lost to violence, discrimination and despair.”
Oxenham then stated trans people continue to face “targeted political attacks,” referencing Alberta’s decision to invoke the notwithstanding clause to shield three bills affecting transgender youth and adults from legal challenges. Oxenham called the move “horrific and harmful.”
The Alberta government has argued the bills protect the well-being of children and youth and increase parent access to information and decision-making power over children, while critics say they violate rights based on misinformation.
Oxenham added Manitoba has “chosen a different path” that stands with the trans community.
“Today, I call on every political leader in this province and country to take a stand; condemn the abuse of the notwithstanding clause to strip away Charter rights.
“We have to defend the right of every transgender person — especially every transgender child — to live, to thrive and to be free,” he said in closing.
All NDP MLAs, and the two Independent and Liberal MLAs, stood and applauded the speech, along with seven of the 16 Tory MLAs in attendance.
The remaining Tories, including Khan, remained seated, a livestream of the legislature’s proceedings showed.
On Friday, Premier Wab Kinew called the Tories’ actions a “cowardly display.”
He specifically targeted Khan for refusing to acknowledge the statement from Oxenham.
“He comes in here and he pats himself on the back, ‘first Muslim MLA ever elected,’ but when it comes time to honour a different community? No, they draw the line. Why is that?” Kinew said of the Opposition leader during question period.
“Such a bizarre world view in the PC side of things, where it’s human rights for some, but not human rights for all.”
The premier later argued the Tories have a pattern of hateful behaviour against the trans community.
He cited the party’s 2023 election promise to expand parental rights, which Kinew called “anti-trans,” and the four Tory MLAs who broke with caucus in 2024 and voted against a bill to establish a Two-Spirit and Transgender Day of Visibility.
“He’s not a leader, he’s a bigot,” Kinew said of the Tory leader Friday.
Khan said after the NDP was trying to score political points with its statement.
There was no reference in the speech to the members of the transgender community who were in the legislature gallery, nor a request for a moment of silence to recognize those who lost their lives, he said.
“It was a very politically motivated and delivered member’s statement to divide Manitobans. That’s why I didn’t clap or didn’t stand for it,” he said.
Khan had no comment about the use of the notwithstanding clause in Alberta, saying it’s not his province.
He also said Kinew’s stance is unclear on the Charter of Rights and Freedom’s notwithstanding clause, which allows for legislation that overrides some sections of the Charter for a five-year term.
While Kinew has been a critic of the clause, he also said he stood with other premiers who denounced a recent Supreme Court ruling on child pornography and demanded the clause be invoked to override the decision.
Khan added he isn’t surprised the premier would accuse him of bigotry, which he adamantly denied, though he felt the Speaker of the House should have ruled the language “unparliamentary.”
