National Post (National Edition)
Scheer, Conservatives raise concerns about WHO data, influence of China
AYLWARD ABSENT
OTTAWA • The Conservative opposition raised broad concerns Tuesday about Canadian government’s reliance on the World Health Organization, questioning the accuracy of its data and its relationship with China during the COVID-19 crisis.
Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer said he had “serious concerns” about the WHO during a news conference on Parliament Hill after returning from his Saskatchewan riding.
Scheer expressed disappointment that Bruce Aylward, a Canadian epidemiologist who headed a WHO mission in China earlier this year, was dropped from the witness list for a House of Commons health committee meeting on Tuesday.
The concern was echoed by Conservative committee member Matt Jeneroux, an Edmonton MP, who unleashed a blistering criticism of Aylward during the committee’s videoconference meeting, saying his no-show was disappointing and unacceptable.
Liberal MP Marcus Powlowski said he shared Jeneroux’s concerns during the two-hour-plus video meeting, which featured the testimony of federal officials from several government departments. The officials from the departments of agriculture, industry, immigration and employment and social development were answering questions about Monday’s federal announcement that it would provide $50 million to subsidize the mandatory 14-day quarantine of temporary agricultural workers from Mexico, Guatemala and Jamaica.
There were tough questions for the government officials, but no shortage of ire directed at Aylward, whose name appeared Monday on the committee’s witness list — until it disappeared.
“I’m disappointed that World Health Organization officials have declined the invitation from the House of Commons health committee to testify,” Scheer said before the meeting.
“We have very serious concerns. Many concerns have been raised about the accuracy of the World Health Organization’s data, the influence that China has on the World Health Organization.”
Scheer said the government is basing its decisions on fighting the COVID-19 outbreak on information from the WHO, so it needs to hear how those decisions are being made.
Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland, Health Minister Patty Hajdu and Dr. Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, defended Canada’s relationship with the WHO at a daily briefing.
Freeland said Canada must co-operate with multilateral institutions to combat a global pandemic and that the WHO is the “international body” that does that.
“We also collaborate closely with other allies in other fora,” Freeland said.
That includes Hajdu’s recent meetings last week with G7 health ministers, she noted. “That’s an important forum for us, and so is partnership with our allies around the world,” Freeland said.
China is not a member of the G7, which is composed of the world’s largest economies that are democracies.
Hajdu said Tam and other health officials have testified at length before the Commons health committee and will continue to do so in the future.
“This is an actual health crisis for Canada, and we work very hard to make sure that the opposition has an ability to ask those questions ... has the information at their fingertips when they ask for it,” Hajdu said.
Jeneroux noted several “facts” he wanted to ask Aylward about and that he has “decided not to come and hide from any accountability.” In Aylward’s absence, he read from a statement:
“There is simply no doubt that the WHO has been slow to recommend concrete measures that has negatively affected Canada’s response to the virus.
“In fact, the WHO has gone above and beyond to congratulate and thank China for their response which has been to mislead the world on the gravity of the virus.”
Jeneroux said Taiwan has managed to “flatten the curve” of the virus but the WHO won’t acknowledge its accomplishments because it doesn’t want to anger China, which views Taiwan as a breakaway province that belongs to it.