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This article was published 17/6/2016 (1555 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a few unusual minutes Friday morning, Premier Brian Pallister and New Democrat Nahanni Fontaine seemed to be alone in a legislature committee room, sharing their memories of the women in their lives.

Tragedy, hardship, poverty, death, abuse -- man and woman, white and indigenous, left wing and right wing, government and opposition -- the political opponents shared emotional and intimate memories.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Nahanni Fontaine,NDP MLA for St.Johns.

The rare, genuinely human moments in partisan politics came with about 25 people in the estimates hearings for the executive council -- one of many committee meetings in which opposition MLAs supposedly question the premier or his ministers about their budgets, but in practice a time in which they can bring up other matters.

Fontaine wanted to know how the premier would help indigenous women, disabled women, women newcomers, women of colour, Muslim women and LGBTTQ* women.

Pallister responded by starting to talk about the women who've influenced his life, and Fontaine let him run with it.

And for a few minutes, it was as though the dozen or so MLAs, along with legislature staff and spectators, weren't even there.

Pallister choked up several times as he talked about his mother and her mother, to the point that a young legislative page brought the premier a box of tissues.

The premier talked about his family members strugging in rural Manitoba, trying to keep a farm going, and about his mother at the age of 12 finding herself responsible for her siblings.

She became a teacher, said Pallister, but that was still a time when the school system told women that they couldn't teach and still raise a family properly.

But she'd gone to school while raising a family: "She'd been doing it since the age of 12," said Pallister.

"It's always nice to see sons who love their mums," Fontaine responded quietly when the premier had finished.

Fontaine then told stories about her own family, some of which she'd shared with the legislature before, told in the same matter-of-fact way that indigenous MLAs Amanda Lathlin and Judy Klassen also talk while telling astounding stories about the lives of many indigenous women.

"My mother was sexually abused as a young child. My mum was raped at the age of 12," Fontaine said. "She tried to escape -- she ran away at the age of 13. She got pregnant with me at the age of 17.

MIKE DEAL / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Premier Brian Pallister.

"My childhood was one of abuse -- physical, emotional, and sexual. Since the age of four, I pretty much raised myself," Fontaine said. "She spent the last 11 years of her life on Vancouver's East Side.

"She died of a heroin overdose, she died alone, she died on the floor of a bathroom."

Their stories are the stories of thousands of indigenous women, some of whom have survived, such as herself, Fontaine said.

"There are thousands of other women who have not survived it...their last moments were immersed in savage violence."

Fontaine told the premier she will represent those women and fight for them in the legislature. "It is for you and me to better understand each other," she said.

Pallister thanked Fontaine for her eloquence and her sincerity.

And, after a few deep breaths and brief reflection, the spell broke, and Fontaine and Pallister went back to politics.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca