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Obby vs Wabby: The real story of Handshake-gate

The Black Rod has seen exclusive video of Turban Day at the Manitoba Legislature including the tense handshake confrontation between NDP leader Wab Kinew and Government Culture and Heritage Minister Obby Khan.

Supplemented by unbroadcast video of media scrums with the two men it’s not hard to determine who is telling the truth and who is lying about the incident.

You won't get this information anywhere else because the local news has been running interference for Kinew from the day he announced he was running for leader of the Manitoba NDP.
http://blackrod.blogspot.com/2017/09/wab-kinews-accuser-finally-gets-to.html

Khan was among a number of people called up to address the crowd in the rotunda of the Manitoba Legislature regarding the province's first-ever Turban Day event. His entire comments were caught on videotape so there's no misundertanding of what he said and what Wab Kinew says he said. 

Khan stood at the podium, which was 6 feet in front of an NDP banner set up as a backdrop.

"It's my pleasure and honour to be here today on behalf of Premier Heather Stefanson and all of my P.C. colleagues at the Manitoba legislature. It is a true honour for me to be standing here today, although I would like to say it would have been nice to see a P.C. banner and a Liberal banner standing behind me as this is a...(scattered applause)...as this is, as Wab Kinew mentioned, bigger than partisan, this is about Manitoba," he begins. At least twice more he referenced the Premier and the Liberals (who didn't appear to have a representative at the event.) 

After concluding his remarks, he walked over to where Kinew was sitting to shake his hand. Wab was not applauding.

Culture and Heritage Minister Obby Khan (left) is seen being aggressively held in a handshake for over 15 seconds by NDP leader Wab Kinew, April 13, 2023  

Khan says Kinew gripped his hand tightly in an intimidating fashion, pulled him in and proceeded to swear at and berate the Minister. He wouldn't release Khan's hand at first, but when he did he did it with a shove, said Khan.

The handshake, seen on the video, last about 20 seconds, much longer than would a friendly greeting. Khan's back blocks the camera's view of their hands. Kinew said he disengaged when the NDP MLA for the Maples was called to the mike.

Khan, standing six-four and a former professional football player with the Blue Bombers, said he wasn't cowed by the shorter Kinew, but the neophyte politician was shaken emotionally by the disrespect and threatening manner of the NDP leader, something he never expected as an elected official in the Legislature.

Not wanting to make a scene, Khan simply walked back across the rotunda to his seat. 

Later on Thursday, he rose in the House on a point of privilege to show Kinew that he wasn't intimidated and that he would follow parliamentary procedure to challenge formally Kinew's thuggish behaviour.

Following his allegations of what happened, both men faced media scrums. Khan, winner of a byelection one year ago, was obviously not used to being in the spotlight. He spoke in his own unpolished words and occasionally choked up.
Kinew, on the other hand, was the pro.

"Mr. Khan and I had a conversation. He had made some partisan commentary from the stage at this community event, so when he approached me to shake my hand later on, I told him I did not appreciate the partisan commentary that he was making..." said Kinew.

"It was a tense exchange because I did not appreciate the partisan commentary that he was bringing to what was otherwise a very positive community event."
"I think the interaction was tense because there was a back and forth over the partisan commentary..."

Did you get that? He was upset about--- all together now--- “the partisan commentary.” He used this exact phrase seven times in the scrum. Carefully chosen words. Dutifully rehearsed. Deliberately undetailed.

He did say he never swore at Khan, essentially calling Khan a liar. But it’s Kinew's carefully manufactured, carefully phrased response that reveals the true bender of truth.

Leaping to Kinew's defence was NDP MLA Nello Altomare (Transcona). He tweeted:
I was present and sitting right behind Wab and Obby Khan.
I heard a very different conversation from what Obby Khan described.
At no time did I hear any swearing or witness any shoving.
The accusations being made by this @PCcaucus member are baseless and unbecoming. #mbpoli

Unless Altomare transformed into a young boy in a bright red turban (whioch in Today's NDP, isn't out of the question), he wasn't sitting right behind Wab. 

The live video, and photos posted by the NDP, show Altomare sitting in the row behind Wab Kinew, but unlike church pews, the seating in the rotunda extended like bicycle spokes away from the centre so that his seat was actually two in and one-and-a-half rows behind Kinew, well away from Kinew once he stood up in the aisle to face Obby Khan. Given that both men spoke in stage whispers so as not to disturb the speaker at the microphone, Altomare couldn't hear what they said nor see through Kinew's back  to see their hands. Nice try, Nello.

The complaint against Kinew did bring out another voice, though.

Health Minister Audrey Gordon  tweeted:
``Today my colleague @obbykhan60 came face to face with the real @wabkinew who accosted and physically intimidated him at a public event. I stand with my colleague in denouncing this action. I have had a similar experience with Wab in the past.``

The "similar experience" was revealed in the Friday's Winnipeg Free Press. She accused Wab Kinew of shoving her off a corner at River and Osborne in 2016 when she was campaigning for a legislature seat in Fort Rouge.

The next step is up to the Speaker of the Legislature to decide how to handle Obby Khan's point of privilege.

But has any other member of the Legislature been so repeatedly accused of intimidating behaviour? Just a sample of the complaints over the years before and after he became an MLA:

* trying to intimidate a Muslim MLA in the Legislature
* pushing a black woman off a curb as she campaigned against his party
* telling a quadriplegic MLA in a wheelchair to "shut up"
* manhandling his girlfriend before she had him charged with domestic assault
* beating up a taxi driver while yelling racial comments after being caught skipping out on the fare

If anyone else had this list of offensive behaviour, the Left would be screaming for his head. Apparently, though, this behaviour is perfectly acceptable when it’s done by the Left`s favorite son.

Six months ago the Left`s previous champion, Glen Murray, was the undeniable, unbeatable front-runner to be Winnipeg`s next mayor. But when people found out about his real character, his lead melted as quickly as a snowbank on a warm Winnipeg spring day.

Marolyn Morrison, the mayor of a small community in Ontario, told of how Murray tried to intimidate her into changing her vote on a zoning issue by casually mentioning that there had been ``complaints`` about her, but that he could make them go away.

When she found out he was running for mayor of Winnipeg, Morrison cautioned voters.

"A leopard doesn't change its spots" she told the CBC.

Published since 2005 on territory ceded, released, surrendered and yielded up to Her Majesty the Queen and successors forever by the aboriginal signatories to treaties in 1871.


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