NDP leader Andrea Horwath is being accused of getting physical inside the Ontario legislature on Tuesday.
Progressive Conservative Donna Skelly says she was sitting on her party's side of the house, speaking with a colleague, and that's when Horwath allegedly came storming across the aisle, screaming and yelling, and then punched her.
"The clerk had to escort her back to her chair," Skelly says. "Am I physically harmed? No. Andrea Horwath does not intimidate me, I can tell you that. But it is absolutely inappropriate behaviour. Nobody should feel threatened where they work. I worked in the media for years and I have engaged in a lot of tough interviews and I have never had somebody accost me, physically. Could you imagine if that had been a man? Could you imagine if a man had done that? They would be screaming! We would have protests outside."
Horwath vehemently denies Skelly's version of events. "I am absolutely saying this is not true. This is not what happened. I simply tapped the woman on the shoulder and when she reacted, again, I was shocked."
The NDP says the PCs were blocking the in-house cameras, waving around pieces of paper, while Horwath was giving a speech, advocating for a new hospital in Brampton. "The government members were behaving in a way that I thought was very inappropriate and so, as a colleague, I was going over to say to her, as someone who has known her for 20 years, 'Donna, what's that all about?'"
Skelly says she was helping a colleague up the stairs and heard there may have been some misunderstanding that she was actually trying to block the cameras. "The reality is, it really doesn't matter why. I am stunned that the leader of the opposition would cross the floor and intentionally, yelling and screaming, push me.
In the meantime, she hopes Horwath gets some help. "I think she needs to, probably, consider some anger management. I mean, she's clearly and angry woman when you see her across the hall but to get up and physically leave your seat and accost a member of the opposition, it's outrageous!"
"I think she needs to look in the mirror; I think she needs to look in the mirror," Horwath responded.
The bells that ring to warn MPPs they need to get into their seats were sounding at the time. When they are going off there are no recordings inside the house. This is why there is no visual or audio accounts of the alleged interaction.