An unimpressive first step as leader

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This article was published 07/05/2025 (323 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On his first day in the Manitoba Legislative Assembly as leader of the Manitoba Progressive Conservative Party, Obby Khan has finally apologized for his Tory government’s defiant refusal to search a landfill site for their remains.

He told his fellow MLAs on Monday that “I stand here today as the new leader of the PC Party and apologize to the families of Rebecca Contois, Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran and Ashlee Shingoose and to all Manitobans for the harm that was caused by our previous campaign.”

“As the new PC leader,” he added, “this is now on me to carry and move forward, in humility, in humbleness and in kindness, in an unwavering love and belief that when we come together under one big tent, we are all better for it.”

Shortly after Khan’s apology, Cambria Harris, the daughter of Morgan Harris, told reporters that “(Khan) can apologize to whomever, but the fact is that there is repercussions, and there is emotional turmoil and damage that their party has caused far beyond the Indigenous community, but within society now, too.”

Harris makes a valid point. In the months prior to the 2023 election, it was widely believed that the remains of her mother and Marcedes Myran, who were both murdered by serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, were likely buried in a specific area of the Prairie Green landfill, located north of Winnipeg.

The former PC government, in which Khan served as a cabinet minister, refused to authorize a search of the site, claiming it was too dangerous. To make matters even worse, however, the PC Party ran election advertisements throughout the province that touted that refusal as evidence of former premier Heather Stefanson’s leadership skills and courage to make hard decisions.

Many Manitobans were offended by the Tory position and advertising strategy, and that anger was a key reason why the party was defeated in the 2023 provincial election. Following that loss, however, nobody from the PC Party apologized for politicizing the landfill search issue, nor for the pain their actions had caused for Indigenous Manitobans generally and the victims’ families in particular.

Fourteen months after the election, at a PC Party leadership contest debate in February of this year, Khan was asked if he had any regrets about the way in which the party had conducted the 2023 campaign. He said he didn’t.

On March 4, after human remains had been found at the landfill site, interim PC leader Wayne Ewasko apologized to the families of Harris, Myran, Contois and Buffalo Woman (later identified as Shingoose), saying that “We lost our way in regards to empathy and also lost our way in regards to closure being brought forward to the families of the victims.”

Following Ewasko’s apology, reporters asked Khan if he agreed with the apology. His response was as puzzling as it was evasive. He said that “I think that’s a question for the current interim leader to answer. When I become leader, I will have my statement going forward on that … Right now, our interim leader has spoken and his comments are clear on (where) he stands.”

It would have easy for Khan to say that he agreed with Ewasko’s apology, but he didn’t. Just two months later, however, he has finally issued an apology of his own.

What are Manitobans to make of this? If Khan disagreed with the PC Party’s 2023 election strategy to politicize the search for the bodies of Harris and Myran, why didn’t he say so then, or for more than year after that campaign? Why didn’t he say so at the leadership debate this past February? Why didn’t he say so after Ewasko apologized in March?

More clearly, why did Khan wait until this week to apologize for something that was so obviously hurtful and cravenly cynical?

The PC Party leader may have his reasons for the delay, but he hasn’t said what they are. As a result, Manitobans are left to ponder the sincerity of his apology and whether he really believes his party did anything wrong.

For a newly elected leader who is committed to rebuilding his party into an organization capable of earning the trust of Manitobans, this is an unimpressive first step.