At some point, NDP leadership hopeful Wab Kinew is going to have to come clean on the domestic violence charges that have been dogging him over the past week.

Kinew, the MLA for Fort Rouge, did not disclose the charges to voters last year when he ran in the provincial election. And he did not mention the charges in his book The Reason You Walk.

He’s been open about other aspects of his troubled past. He has spoken candidly about his criminal convictions from over a decade ago and the derogatory comments he used to make regularly on social media about homosexuals and women.

To his credit, he’s been genuine in his resolve to make amends for that past behaviour and to actively promote societal change, including treating women and the LGBTQ community with the respect they deserve. There’s no reason to believe Kinew is not a changed man. I’m not sure what more you could ask of someone seeking a second chance in life.

Except for this domestic violence issue, which is either a loose end Kinew should not have left hanging, or it’s something more serious that he doesn’t want the public to know about.

The case was investigated in 2003. Charges were laid but they were eventually stayed, which means they were dropped. There are many reasons why charges get stayed. Sometimes it’s due to a lack of evidence. Sometimes a key witness, including the victim, recants, is no longer available or has become unreliable. Sometimes it turns out the story was bogus and there was no case to begin with.

But sometimes it’s because the accuser feels intimidated and is no longer prepared to testify even when there was a genuine case of assault. When that happens, the perpetrator gets off scot-free. We don’t know what happened in Kinew’s case. And so far he’s chosen not to elaborate.

Either way, if the prosecution believes there isn’t a likelihood of a conviction, charges are dropped. When that happens, there’s still a presumption of innocence for the person charged. People are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. It’s important to remember that in this case. And if Kinew were just a private citizen going about his own business, the matter would be left at that.

But he isn’t. Kinew is an elected official, he is seeking the leadership of a major political party and if he wins, he will be running for premier of Manitoba in 2020. Which means there’s a higher standard for him to meet. And when there are unexplained domestic assault charges that were laid 14 years ago, that becomes a problem.

Kinew needs to explain what happened beyond simply claiming there was nothing to the charges. He can do that while still protecting the identity of the alleged victim. He owes that to his party and to voters. If you want to be the premier of Manitoba, this is the kind of public scrutiny you must be prepared to endure. People know that, or ought to know that, when they decide to seek public office.

It is problematic that Kinew consciously decided not to disclose the domestic assault charges. Had he done so from the outset, he wouldn’t be facing criticism today.

However, he can still put all of this behind him with a reasonable explanation of what occurred and why charges were dropped. If he doesn’t, this matter will continue to dog him. And his political opponents will seize on it repeatedly, including during the next provincial election.

For the most part, Kinew has done all of the right things to move on from his troubled past and he should be commended for that. But he has to deal with these domestic assault charges in an open and transparent way.

Failure to do so could have incalculable consequences on his political career.