Ex-spouse of Kurt Berger, turfed Liberal candidate, speaks out

The ex-spouse of turfed Manitoba Liberal candidate Kurt Berger is upset the party ever let him run in the first place.

"That person should not be allowed to run in any political party," said Sandra, Berger's ex. She requested CBC only refer to her by her first name.

Sandra said she was prompted to send a detailed email to the Manitoba Liberal Party after news broke last week that Berger had been charged in 2002 with assaulting her, his then-partner. 

After receiving the note and asking for Berger's resignation Monday, Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari said she hasn't spoken with his ex, but she sides with her anyway. 

"If it's he said she said, and that's what this has become I have to side with the female." Bokhari said.

"We had documents we had everything to show that he had done his best to rehabilitate whatever it was..for a woman to come out... and if there's any air of truth to anything that is being said, I can't allow it." Bokhari said. 

RAW: Rana Bokhari on severing ties with Kurt Berger

9 years ago

Duration 1:35

Manitoba Liberal Leader Rana Bokhari says she has asked for the resignation of Kurt Berger, a party candidate in Winnipeg who had pleaded guilty to assaulting his then-common-law partner 14 years ago.

Sandra said she is glad Bokhari asked for Berger's resignation, but she doesn't understand why the party didn't reach out to her during the vetting process.

• Liberal candidate Kurt Berger dumped after new information emerges from his ex
• Liberals stand by candidate who pleaded guilty to assaulting girlfriend

"I feel [Bokhari] should have probably looked into it a little more before she approved his candidacy, but … at least she corrected it," Sandra said.

If the Liberals had contacted her for her side of the story, "it would've saved a lot of people ... a lot of embarrassment," Sandra said.

Berger told The Canadian Press last week he and his ex were involved in a domestic dispute over a decade ago.

"My common-law partner at the time and I got in an argument. It escalated to a point where she had pushed me. I pushed her in return," Berger said in an interview with The Canadian Press on Friday. "I felt the situation was getting out of hand, so I ended up calling the RCMP."

Berger and his partner gave differing versions to the police, he said, and he was charged with assault.

'Everything he said was untrue'

Sandra said she found Berger's description of what happened insulting to abuse victims everywhere.

"Basically everything he said was untrue. He tried to minimize the assault to one minor little incident that I was mutually responsible for. It was offensive to me on so many levels for so many reasons," Sandra said.

Sandra said Berger has also been claiming he hasn't been in touch with her since the altercation happened almost a decade ago.

"That's a complete lie," Sandra said, adding Berger's characterization of the altercation hasn't only hurt her.

"He's...trying to snow the public about who he really is when in fact he won't even follow a family court order. If he's not going to follow a family court order, you think he's going to be respectful with the public?"

Sandra said she would consider forgiving Berger "if he would take responsibility for what he did."

"To this day, he hasn't," she said.

Read an excerpt from Sandra's letter to the Liberals below:

"There is no excuse for the assault he inflicted on me! To me there is no such thing as a mutually abusive relationship! There is always one person with the power, be it physical or mental. There was nothing mutual about what happened! 

"I felt it important that the public who had the pleasure of hearing his side of the story online and/or on the news, have the opportunity to hear the true story, being as the allegations and his charges are rather serious. I have no political ambitions, I have nothing to gain from airing my side, except to correct the misconception he is selling the public about his charges.

"And I also feel they and the liberal party should know who they are actually voting for and endorsing, not who he wants you to think he is, by spinning his past to be more palatable to the public and liberal party."