A Liberal MP said Canadians who believe Ottawa is corrupt should “take a look at Afghanistan” during a Commons ethics committee.
Pam Damoff, a Liberal MP who represents Ontario’s Oakville—North Burlington riding, said Canadians who think the Trudeau government is too corrupt should look no further than how things are currently operating in war-torn Afghanistan.
She made the comments at an ethics committee meeting discussing the RCMP’s decision to not criminally investigate the SNC-Lavalin scandal.
Damoff was discussing the importance of keeping police investigations at arms length from the government, unlike authoritarian governments which give orders for whom the police should investigate.
During one of her statements, she went off-subject to discuss the online criticism that she has received as a Liberal MP.
“I’ve been called a traitor,” said Damoff.
“I’ve been told that my government is corrupt and I often say to people, ‘take a look at Afghanistan, take a look at what’s going on in the Middle East right now if you actually want to see countries where there are terrorists running a country, as in Gaza,” she added.
“You’ve got Afghanistan, women and girls have no rights at all and it really troubles me when people are making comparisons to other countries around the world. Like Russia, comparing Canada to that.”
“I’ve unfortunately been a victim of all those kinds of comments. Do you have anything to comment on how we can get back to a more civilized discussion on issues?” she asked the witness, former Privy Council clerk Wernick.
“I think the chair will reign us in as being off topic on today’s hearing,” replied Wernick. “I would say that I’ve given plenty of interviews and podcasts on this topic and you can find all of my output as a professor on my LinkedIn feed.”
Damoff’s comments sparked a swift backlash on social media, with many Canadians feeling that simply pointing to a more corrupt government than your own is not an ideal defence.
The Liberals have been found in violation of ethics laws several times since 2015.
Damoff also said she has been targeted with threats for her stance on firearms.
“As someone who has advocated quite vocally for gun control, I became the target and have been for a number of years of the gun lobby,” said Damoff. “Which has included threats, you know, memes and all kinds of things.”
“Recently, Mr. Barrett,” referring to Conservative MP Michael Barrett, “posted a video on social media with all our email addresses inviting people to contact us about trying to shut down the investigation of the RCMP and as a result my staff actually had to open a subfolder in my inbox and labeled it ‘misogyny’ because of the actual horrific emails and messages I was getting on social media.”
“Do you have any thoughts on the direction our country has gone in the last few years?” Damoff asked witness Michael Wernick.
Wernick maintained that during his time as a clerk, he never instructed RCMP not to investigate the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau or his government regarding the scandal as media reports claimed.