Naked MP speaks out on `destructive' leaked photo

OTTAWA — The Liberal MP who inadvertently flashed his parliamentary colleagues says the fact that a screenshot of him in the nude was leaked to the media sends a troubling message about the corrosive state of politics in Canada.

“It sends a terrible signal,” William Amos said Saturday in an interview. “It says if there's partisan gain to be achieved, then anything goes and that's not acceptable.

“What does that tell our children and what does it tell society about the nature of proper behaviour in a digital society?”

The MP for the Quebec riding of Pontiac said he had just returned from a jog and was changing his clothes in his office Wednesday.

He did not realize the camera on his laptop was turned on and that his image was being beamed to fellow MPs tuned in to an internal parliamentary feed of virtual proceedings in the House of Commons.

No one watching the public feed saw Amos, since he was not addressing the Commons at the time.

Amos, the parliamentary secretary to Industry Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne, said at first he was hopeful that the embarrassing faux pas would go unremarked when no one raised it during question period.

Those hopes were shattered shortly afterward, however, as a screen grab of him standing naked by his desk was leaked and began circulating on social media.

His first thoughts were about the impact on his family.

“The conversation (about the incident) with my wife, which I'd been sort of delaying, had to happen right away,” Amos said. “And then you start thinking about your parents and your in-laws and your relatives.”

The story, and the mortifying screenshot, has since made headlines from Malaysia to England.

“It's corrosive, it's destructive and it's all because of one or multiple people's decision that this was a good idea (to leak it).”