MPs issue rare summons of WHO doctor

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 advisor 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

Kong based 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 lead 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.