Accessibility minister will keep her job after comments about sign-language interpreter: Manitoba premier

Premier Wab Kinew said Manitoba's accessibility minister will remain in her position after she apologized for swearing into a hot mic about sharing a stage with a sign-language interpreter.

Kinew said he is aware members of Manitoba's Deaf community were upset by comments made in June by Nahanni Fontaine following a speech she delivered during a graduation event she hosted for Indigenous women.

"It's been tough, I think, to see people in the community hurt and to have those perspectives shared. I totally understand where people are coming from," Kinew said Friday during a scrum with reporters at Canada Life Centre following an unrelated event.

"At the same time, I think our minister has apologized and is putting in the work with the community. It's with the greatest humility I want to ask folks in the Deaf community to keep working with her and to help our government and our team do what we do every day."

The comments in question were made on June 26. In video footage gathered by APTN news, Fontaine told a person off camera that she was "thrown off" by the interpreter sharing the stage with her at the event, adding the interpreter shouldn't have been on the stage because she was blocking Fontaine's view of the audience. 

Fontaine, apparently unaware the camera was recording, made the comments to a staff member while preparing to speak with reporters at the event, which she was hosting. 

The other person referred to the interpreter's translation as "frantic hand movements."

"Yeah, I'm like, 'F--k, why did I have her on the stage?' Jesus! I'm like, 'you need to leave,'" the minister said into a hot mic in the APTN video.

WATCH | APTN footage shows Fontaine complaining about sharing stage with interpreter:

Nahanni Fontaine complains about ASL interpreter sharing her stage

5 days ago

Duration 0:32

In video captured by APTN, Manitoba's minister responsible for accessibility asks "why the F are you on the stage?" in reference to the sign language interpreter who had shared the stage with her while she delivered a speech to Indigenous graduates.

The interpreter was removed from the stage following Fontaine's speech, prompting criticism from some Deaf attendees at the event.

Fontaine apologized after the video came to light, initially stating she was expressing frustration about "her poor planning ensuring clear sight lines on all graduates" during a private debrief with staff.

"My comments did not acknowledge signing is not simply 'hand movements,' but a full and rich language used by thousands of Manitobans every day," she said in a June 27 statement.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives then called on Fontaine to be removed from her position as the NDP's accessibility minister.

PC leader Obby Khan said Friday that Fontaine ought to have been held accountable.

Kinew said the PCs lost the 2023 election because the party attacked people.

Fontaine told CBC News earlier this week it is up to the premier to decide if she remains in that position.

The Manitoba Deaf Association, meanwhile, said it will continue to advise Fontaine after two of its executives met with the minister at her office on Wednesday.

"We will continue to be by her side as advisers on our accessibility needs," association president Shawna Joynt said in a statement. "We know this will not sit well with everyone and we do understand these feelings."

Joynt said Fontaine will continue to work alongside interpreters to ensure her events and her speeches remain accessible, and the minister "expressed her commitment to learn and make improvements from this huge misstep."

Joynt also said Fontaine helped start an interpretation program at RRC Polytech. 

Deborah Owczar and Stephanie Jebb, who attended the June 26 graduation where Fontaine spoke and were upset by the minister's comments, said Fontaine should meet with other people in the Deaf community, hire in-house ASL interpreters and conduct a healing circle with deaf Indigenous people.