In a Stalinesque turn of events, Liberal and NDP members of the Justice Committee have voted to wipe the record clean of some comments made by former committee member and Conservative MP Michael Cooper.
In a Stalinesque turn of events, Liberal and NDP members of the Justice Committee have voted to wipe the record clean of some comments made by former committee member and Conservative MP Michael Cooper.
The comments in question were made by Cooper during last week’s committee study on “online hate.”
Committee members voted on Tuesday after their last round of witnesses in the study to have the record edited to remove part of Cooper’s remarks.
Liberal and NDP MPs were outraged after Cooper referenced the New Zealand shooter’s manifesto in a response to witness Faisal Khan Suri, the president of the Alberta Muslim Public Affairs Council. The reference was to the fact that the witness linked conservative commentators to the mass shooter’s writings.
“Mr. Suri, I take great umbrage with your defamatory comments to try to link conservatism with violent extremist attacks. They have no foundation, they’re defamatory, and they diminish your credibility as a witness,” said Cooper before reading a segment of the manifesto in which the shooter rejected conservatism.
Cooper has since been removed from his position on the Justice Committee by the Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer.
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault put forward the motion to edit the record and has also been spearheading the calls to have Cooper dismissed from the Conservative caucus.
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