MP abusive at shelter, according to Red Cross

WINNIPEG—A member of Parliament is denying an accusation that she caused a disturbance, created confusion and was verbally abusive at an emergency shelter for forest fire evacuees last summer.

A three-page complaint filed by the Canadian Red Cross to the federal government, and obtained by The Canadian Press, says Liberal backbencher MaryAnn Mihychuk ignored protocol and the reality of the situation last September, when she visited a Winnipeg shelter housing evacuees who had been flown in from the Garden Hill First Nation.

“Mihychuk verbally abused Red Cross volunteers and staff at the shelter and on the phone, using abusive and bullying language,” the complaint alleges.

“For the evacuees, many of whom had just arrived from an- other shelter, the chaos and confusion caused by Mihychuk (Manitoba Liberal legislaand ture member Judy) Klassen stirring up the evacuees and misleading them about hotel rooms, only caused to multiply the stress the evacuees are already under.”

In a statement, Klassen said she was trying to get residents what they needed.

Mihychuk said Thursday she never acted out of line.

“I find the accusations surprising, actually, and inaccurate,” she said. “I will always stand up for people who are in trouble and victimized, and that was the circumstance of the Indigenous evacuees.”

The shelter visit occurred at the height of a large evacuation effort involving more than 4,000 people from three Aboriginal communities — Garden Hill, Wasagamack and St. Theresa Point — roughly 500 kilometres north of Winnipeg.