The Prime Minister's Office has apologized for a strange incident that occurred in Gatineau, Que., Friday night.

It happened at an event hosted by the Indian High Commission at the Museum of Civilization to launch "The Year of India in Canada," in which Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff were both there to give speeches.

Harper delivered a short address, but before Ignatieff got his turn at the podium, a PMO staffer hustled all the attending reporters and camera crews out of the building.

The journalists had known Ignatieff would be there, but it hadn't been confirmed that he'd be speaking — so they left without question.

Ignatieff's communications director, Leslie Church, was incensed, furiously protesting what she called an appalling abuse of PMO power.

Harper spokesman Andrew MacDougall later apologized for the incident, putting it down to either a staff misunderstanding, or "over-zealousness."