Grits fight Red Cross allegations

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This article was published 21/06/2018 (2127 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA — Two Manitoba politicians are standing by their intervention in the chaotic Winnipeg resettlement of Island Lake wildfire evacuees last summer, after the Canadian Red Cross accused them, in a leaked report, of bullying staff and disrupting shelter arrangements.

The report, authored nine months ago, emerged in a Thursday article by The Canadian Press, and takes aim at two Liberals: Kildonan-St. Paul MP MaryAnn Mihychuk and northern Manitoba MLA Judy Klassen.

“Mihychuk verbally abused Red Cross volunteers and staff at the shelter and on the phone, using abusive and bullying language,” claims the agency’s Sept. 7, 2017, report to Indigenous Services Canada.

The report surrounds residents of Garden Hill First Nation, who were housed at the Winnipeg Soccer Federation complex in Mihychuk’s Kildonan riding. Others from neighbouring reserves were housed in hotels and the RBC Convention Centre.

The leaked report claimed the two showed up without following Red Cross protocol, and started making confusing phone calls between the agency and Garden Hill officials about whether to relocate residents to hotel rooms in Selkirk.

“For the evacuees, many of whom had just arrived from another shelter, the chaos and confusion caused by Mihychuk and Klassen stirring up the evacuees and misleading them about hotel rooms, only caused to multiply the stress the evacuees are already under,” the report alleges.

A call log shows conflicting information as to whether Garden Hill officials consented to relocating to Selkirk, and whether they’d do so at night.

The report claims Mihychuk said “Selkirk is a nice place, with a Walmart,” and she would help co-ordinate a bus to “load them up and ship them out.” The result, according to Red Cross officials, was “40, 50 people were standing outside in the cold with garbage bags of items they rushed to pack up.”

Klassen said the report actually paints her and Mihychuk in a positive light, because it showed the Red Cross needed assistance in determining how the community wanted to be housed and where spots were available, especially for northern First Nations people.

“We’re quiet. And so, someone like MaryAnn came and tried to help them, and got on a phone call and tried getting things done for them right in front of their eyes,” Klassen said of her fellow Liberal, adding other politicians only made brief visits. “MaryAnn was the only one who came out.”

Mihychuk previously dismissed the Red Cross report, but declined to speak on-record Friday. She instead wrote in a statement Klassen had invited her to meet the evacuees to see if they could help.

“I saw first-hand the stress that evacuees were facing. I also saw good people working hard under extremely difficult circumstances who were helping those in need.”

The office of Indigenous Services Canada Minister Jane Philpott said the Liberals addressed the issues with Mihychuk.

“It is our expectation that departmental and elected officials maintain the highest level of professionalism in dealing with such sensitive situations,” spokeswoman Rachel Rappaport wrote. “The concerns raised in the report were addressed directly with the member.‎”

The report accused Mihychuk of “abusive and bullying language” and violating Red Cross protocol. Previously, sources have accused the MP of being pushy with staff and senior Liberals, and of overstepping her authority.

In January 2017, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau shuffled Mihychuk out of the federal cabinet after just 15 months as labour minister. She chalked the ouster up to a change in priorities, but insiders said it followed missteps in employment-insurance consultations and for promising the previous Manitoba government $20 million in aerospace training funding without authorization.

It’s unclear why the report has emerged more than nine months after it was sent to the government. While some federal Liberal insiders suggested it may have come from the provincial PC government in an effort to sway next month’s St. Boniface byelection.

Klassen said it was more likely the Red Cross retaliated against Mihychuk for her role in a parliamentary report tabled Tuesday that suggested not using the agency for future evacuations.

The Red Cross came under fierce scrutiny during hearings at the House of Commons Indigenous-affairs committee, which Mihychuk chairs, in its study of wildfires on reserves.

Briefs and testimony revealed accusations Red Cross staffed failed to intervene when Winnipeg drug dealers plied evacuees with free methamphetamine samples, contributing to an ongoing rise in addictions in Island Lake. It was alleged frail elders were warehoused on cots, while children weren’t given ample play areas and slipped out into downtown Winnipeg multiple times.

“A known sexual offender was placed in the same large shelter as hundreds of women and children,” wrote St. Theresa Point First Nation band councillor Mary Jane Monias.

The agency refused to accept most donations from Winnipeggers, because it believes it’s costly and time-consuming to store, clean and distribute those items. While the evacuees got clothing vouchers, blankets and diapers, it was alleged those same donated items sat unused outside the evacuation centres.

Mihychuk wouldn’t speak Friday to who gave the Red Cross report to media, instead writing the Red Cross is “a well-known and honourable institution.” But Klassen assumed the agency sought retribution against Mihychuk for embarrassing it.

“They’re going to try and discredit here, and point out the one instance where it was bad. But every day it was bad for these people,” she said. “The political — trying to throw shade on MaryAnn: that’s not going to work on my people, because MaryAnn is the one that they trust.”

Two officials at the Red Cross refused to comment on the leak, and refused to say if the agency — which handles vulnerable people’s personal information — would investigate it.

“The Canadian Red Cross does not publicly disclose or discuss confidential reports or submissions,” wrote spokeswoman Colleen Lowe, who called her agency “a neutral, impartial, and independent humanitarian organization.”

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca

Canadian Red Cross report on MaryAnn Mihychuk and Judy Klassen