MPS ISSUE SUMMONS FOR WHO DOC.
Canadian snubbed House invitations
OTTAWA • After their invitation was turned down twice, MPS have become more forceful with a top representative of the World Health Organization, issuing a summons to demand he appear in front of the Commons health committee.
Dr. Bruce Aylward is a senior adviser and former assistant director general with the WHO. He also led an expert group looking at the coronavirus’ emergence in China and has been with the WHO for decades, leading efforts against polio and other deadly diseases.
Aylward is a Canadian and after graduating from Memorial University in Newfoundland began his career here before joining the WHO.
The WHO has been criticized for being too deferential to China during the crisis and Aylward dodged a question with a Hong Kongbased television station about Taiwan’s response to COVID-19, apparently hanging up rather than answering the question directly.
House of Commons’ committees typically invite experts and stakeholders to testify when considering legislation or in this case examining a government’s response to a crisis. Usually, the invite is sufficient, but in rare cases committees issue summons to hear from witnesses who are reluctant to show.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg received a summons from the House of Commons ethics committee in 2018 when he refused to appear in front of its members, but the company eventually agreed to send the head of Facebook’s Canadian division as a replacement.
Aylward has declined two invites from the committee, first to appear April 14 and then to appear before May 1 and the WHO has not offered any alternative speakers, which led to the summons being issued after an unanimous vote on Thursday evening.
Conservative MP Matt Jeneroux said the committee hasn’t received anything but a polite no from the organization.
“We haven’t any alternative pitched to us at all. There could be perhaps an alternative pitch, which we would consider,” he said.
The WHO is a United Nations body, formed in 1948, with a mandate to focus on public health. The agency’s legal counsel Derek Walton wrote the committee a letter after the first invitation. Walton said the agency is prepared for a full review of its decisions, but not at this time.
“WHO has stated its strong commitment to a timely review of the global response in a transparent, independent and comprehensive manner,” reads the letter sent to the committee.
“We are in the initial phase of the most complex and time sensitive public health response in the history of the organization and our single minded focus is thus on working with countries in the fight against the pandemic.”
Jeneroux said they understand Aylward is busy during this global pandemic, but he has made time for media interviews and he sees no reason why he couldn’t make an appearance before the committee.
“We asked for him just to show up for an hour knowing that his time is valuable, but just one hour knowing that we would work around his time zone.”
The summons only has any force in Canada and Aylward is, according to reports, currently in Geneva. Jeneroux said he can be presented with the summons when he returns to Canada and if necessary police can be called upon to enforce it, but he hopes that won’t be necessary.
“That is probably the extreme end of this thing. I honestly don’t see that playing out,” he said.
Jeneroux said Canada’s response to the crisis has been driven by the WHO recommendations and that makes it important for the committee to be able to ask Aylward questions.
The WHO initially recommended against travel restrictions and border closures and advised against using masks. Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer, initially agreed with the WHO’S recommendations before changing her position on both those issues.
WE ASKED ... FOR JUST ONE HOUR KNOWING WE WOULD WORK AROUND HIS TIME ZONE.
NDP MP Don Davies said he wants to understand why the WHO made the recommendations it has and how Canada responded.
“To me this is not about politics. I am not there to delve into the politics of the WHO. I am purely interested in their information and the way they responded to the COVID-19 crisis,” he said.
He said if Aylward is prepared to do media interviews he should testify.
“I don’t understand the difference. If he is prepared to come forward and on the record answer questions, why wouldn’t he want to do that with our committee.”
Davies said Aylward has a global perspective that will be valuable in the committee’s research.