Manitoba premier apologizes for timing of comments about son's hockey game

Manitoba’s premier is apologizing for the timing of her comments about her son’s hockey game directly after she was asked about a woman’s death.

“I mean, I’m never going to apologize for celebrating my son and my family, but the timing of it was off,” Premier Heather Stefanson said on Friday.

“Obviously, I apologize for that.”

Stefanson said in that moment, she was “very proud” of her son and that’s what she was thinking about at the time.

“But again, it was not the right time for it and I apologize for that.”

Stefanson’s apology comes after NDP Leader Wab Kinew asked her a question earlier this week about Krystal Mousseau, a woman who died in May before she could be transferred from a Brandon ICU space to a hospital in Ontario.

Mousseau’s death was declared a critical incident.

The premier said that the chief medical examiner took the critical incident report into consideration when deciding not to go forward with an inquest into her death.

“I agree with the chief medical examiner,” she said.

“Those critical incident reports are absolutely critical, obviously. It satisfied [the chief medical examiner] and I think it satisfies us that the appropriate investigation has already taken place.

Stefanson noted that often during the first question and answer in the chamber, officials will start off by talking about other subjects before getting to the issue at hand.

- With files from CTV’s Josh Crabb.