OTTAWA, Ontario, April 28, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer now says he does not agree with his fellow member of Parliament (M.P.) Derek Sloan, who last week blasted Canada’s top doctor and said she should be fired for her response to the coronavirus.
In a press conference Monday, Scheer said Sloan, who is a pro-life Conservative leadership candidate, was wrong to call for the firing of Canada’s chief public health officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, and question her “loyalty” to Canada.
“I do not agree with his position, with what he said. That is not the position of our caucus,” said Scheer in a response to a question asking him if Sloan’s comments were racist.
“I believe it is not appropriate to question someone’s loyalty to their country. I believe that is a very serious accusation that you have to have some very substantial evidence to make.”
Last Tuesday, Sloan caused a flurry of controversy on social media after he posted a video where he said Tam should resign or be fired. Sloan also emailed this same messaging to his followers the same day.
“Does [Tam] work for Canada or for China?” said Sloan in his video, also saying, “The World Health Organization [WHO] parroted Chinese misinformation coming out from the Communist Party of China.”
In his email, Sloan questioned Tam’s ties to the WHO.
“Our Chief Public Health Officer, Dr. Theresa Tam, has continually cited the WHO as an authority,” said Sloan in the email.
“Dr. Tam must now either resign or be fired. Canada’s Chief Public Health Officer needs to work for Canada. Not for the WHO or any other foreign entity.”
Tam, who has served as Canada’s top health official since 2017, has direct ties to the WHO. She is one of seven people who sit on the Independent Oversight and Advisory Committee for the WHO Health Emergencies Programme (IOAC).
In mid-April, Rebel News broke the story that the prime minister of Canada’s Liberals under Justin Trudeau sent close to $1 million of taxpayer money to help fund “research” for new COVID-19 “screening and diagnosis” tools at the Chinese lab where the virus is suspected to have originated.
Scheer, who himself questioned Trudeau and the WHO in the past, initially deflected questions about Sloan. Just this past Thursday, he said, “I won’t be commenting on individual statements or positions that leadership candidates take.”
However, his tone changed Monday after the mainstream media, members of his party such as Michelle Rempel, and Trudeau said Sloan’s comments were racist.
“Intolerance and racism have no place in our country. Canada has succeeded because of our diversity,” Trudeau said in response to a question about Sloan’s comments.
Sloan fought back against claims from many, including from Trudeau, that he is a racist in a statement he released late last week. He said his messaging against Tam was not a result of her race or sex, but on how she has performed as Canada’s top doctor.
“I heard the Prime Minister’s comments yesterday. Trudeau seems to have taken note of my observation of Dr. Tam’s excessive deference to the increasingly discredited World Health Organization (WHO), which is heavily influenced by the Chinese Communist Party, after which he leaped all the way to unfounded accusations of racism,” Sloan said.
“No one knows better than Justin Trudeau that anyone — of any race — can hold foolish international Communist sympathies. He himself has spoken of his admiration for China’s ‘basic dictatorship,’” adding, “Would I be called a racist for using his own remarks to point out his bias in favour of the Chinese Communist Party?”
On January 26, in response to a question asking her about the potential spread of the virus on a plane, Tam said via Twitter:
“3/3 There is no clear evidence that this virus is spread easily from person to person. The risk to Canadians remains low. Find more info on #2019nCoV #coronavirus here: https://canada.ca/coronavirus.”
In an interview with The Intelligencer last Friday, Sloan said he will not apologize for his remarks about Tam.
“I won’t be issuing an apology. We’re going to be issuing additional communications to party members and doing additional interviews so that may help to clarify. I never mentioned her race and in no way was it part of my comments,” said Sloan.
On Monday, Scheer did not say whether he would be expelling Sloan from the party but instead stated he will leave it up to party members to decide Sloan’s fate.
“In the context of a leadership race, our members will make decisions as to what they ultimately want to see in terms of the direction of the party,” said Scheer.
Maxime Bernier, who served as a cabinet minister under Prime Minister Stephen Harper before splintering and founding the People's Party of Canada, was candid about how he felt about the Sloan situation in a tweet.
“Conservatives. They s— in their pants every time the Left attacks them. No one cares about Theresa Tam’s ethnic background. We care that she is incompetent and ideologically in tune with the WHO and the Chinese communists, like Trudeau and Hajdu,” said Bernier.
Rebel News founder Ezra Levant said on Twitter Monday that Dr. Tam cannot be trusted.
“Tam is not Canada's top doctor. She hasn't seen a patient in years. She's a public health bureaucrat. It's different. For example, a top doctor wouldn't have lied to us for months, saying masks didn’t work and were dangerous, just to cover up her boss giving our masks to China.”