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This article was published 24/8/2017 (1124 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba Liberal leadership candidate Dougald Lamont accused the former NDP government Thursday of jailing more Indigenous people than any government in Canada, and breaking up more Indigenous families than any government in the western world.

He also blasted the NDP for applying a double standard to 2003 charges of domestic assault that were stayed against Manitoba party leadership candidate Wab Kinew, and to its treatment of Indigenous people.

Provincial Liberal leadership candidate Dougald Lamont.

"For the size of our province, the Manitoba NDP has put more Indigenous people behind bars than any government in Canada. And no government in the western world has broken up more Indigenous families and taken away more children than the Manitoba NDP," Lamont said by email.

Asked to elaborate, provide substantiation and to explain how a government can jail people, Lamont said: "The NDP ran the justice system while in government and argued for, and passed laws, that led to a continual rise in Indigenous incarceration. It is not an accident that Manitoba has twice the national incarceration rate: it is the result of decades of PC/NDP policies that have favoured jail and remand over jobs and education."

The NDP caucus, provincial party and Kinew campaign declined to comment on Lamont's accusations Thursday.

Steve Ashton, who is running against Kinew for leadership of the NDP, also did not respond.

Lamont is running against MLAs Jon Gerrard and Cindy Lamoureux in the Oct. 21 Liberal leadership race. Lamont said he believes in redemption and forgiveness, but accused the former NDP government of not applying those values to Indigenous people when it was in power.

"The NDP are willing to extend sympathy to Wab Kinew in a way they were never — even for a moment — willing to extend to others when they were in power," he said.

"If Wab Kinew were running for leader of another party, many of the same people in the NDP who are defending him right now would be demanding he step down as a candidate or be fired."

Gerrard lauded Lamont for his comments on Kinew, but remained silent on his opponent's attacks on the former government's treatment of Indigenous people.

"Wab Kinew's ongoing lack of transparency and accountability is indeed a concern. Dougald Lamont has shared important insight on the NDP’s double-standards," Gerrard said.

Lamoureux said she will let the NDP choose its leader, and then let the people of Manitoba decide which party they want in the 2020 election. She didn't comment on Lamont's statements.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca