“So will the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health give us a date on when he’ll end the mandates,” said Barrett, “or will he tell me to F off like he did to one of his constituents?”
On Sunday, it was revealed that Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden had sworn at a constituent during a heated discussion about vaccine mandates in his DMs.
Conservative MP Michael Barrett referenced the incident on Monday while debating Van Koeverden in the House of Commons.
https://rumble.com/embed/v15qim1/?pub=2n05b
Barrett began by criticizing the Liberals for failing to do away with airport-clogging travel vaccine mandates after repeated pleas from politicians, citizens, and even ex-NHL star Ryan Whitney.
In his response as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health and Sport, Van Koeverden reiterated that the Trudeau government would not scrap the mandates, but would only end randomized testing at airports for two weeks before moving it off-site after that.
Barrett called the plan "a joke," before laying into Van Koeverden personally.
"So will the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Health give us a date on when he'll end the mandates, or will he tell me to F off like he did to one of his constituents?"
This drew a mixed reaction from the other members; some cheered, others booed.
Van Koeverden took the opportunity to apologize for his behaviour, admitting to "responding in an unacceptable way to a message on social media."
"I wanna apologize to the person that I offended, and anybody else that I let down. I realize that the past two years have been really difficult for a lot of people, but my conduct was unacceptable. We have an obligation to disagree while being disagreeable, and in that regard I failed."
— Adam van Koeverden (@vankayak)
Van Koeverden also issued a public apology via Twitter.
The woman who the MP and former Olympic gold-medalist had sworn at was identified as Kate Faith, a Brantford, Ontario-born unvaccinated teacher now living in New Zealand.
As the Toronto Sun reports, Faith had contacted Van Koeverden to criticize his government's vaccine mandates, which had prevented her from returning home to see family.
"You guys stand in parliament and act like these mandates actually serve a purpose?" she wrote. "I was a teacher who got fired for not taking a jab. Now I am a supply teacher, covering classes every single day because all the jabbed teachers have covid and can’t work."
"Why can't I come home to see my family???" she added, calling Van Koeverden "a disgrace of a Canadian."
He responded to the insult by saying to Faith, "F*ck you."
"Are you upset? Faith replied. "I haven’t seen my family in 2.5 years. I had to watch my papa (grandfather) get buried on facetime. I cant hug my parents or nana’s because of your Liberal mandates and you had the nerve to swear at me?"
Van Koeverden ended the conversation by saying he "made a mistake" in replying to "someone like you."
Shameful Liberal MP Adam van Koeverden who voted to continue discriminatory mandates tells off impacted constituent. Is this the type of conduct to be expected from an MP @vankayak? Govern yourself accordingly. #cdnpoli pic.twitter.com/2rBCSmMc6r
— Rowan (@canmericanized)
Screenshots of the conversation emerged on Twitter, prompting the aforementioned apology from Van Koeverden and criticism from Barrett.
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