Funny incident in early May in the House of Commons in Canada: Shafqat Ali videoconferenced a meeting… from his toilet. Criticized, he promised never to repeat “this mistake”.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, parliaments around the world have adapted and many sessions have been organized in a hybrid format: some parliamentarians are face-to-face while the others follow the agenda.
That’s what Shafqat Ali, a Canadian MP and member of the Liberal Party, did as he followed a Friday, May 6 meeting via Zoom. But this chosen one was connected from a toilet reports the Guardian.
From the start of the meeting, suspicions arose as to where this MP was staying, says the British daily. It was Conservative Laila Goodridge who later told the House of Commons that a “legislator might have come to the meeting from a toilet”.
“If you don’t need your camera, turn it off!”
The affair only broke out in the Canadian Parliament on Monday. MP John Brassard studied the background to Shafqat Ali’s footage, and lawmakers concluded that the Liberal Party member “placed his device on the ledge just above the back of the toilet”.
“The MP used the toilet while attending a session of the House of Commons, the cathedral of Canadian democracy,” lamented John Brassard.
Shafqat Ali apologized, the Guardian reports, and vowed never to make the “mistake” again. “If you don’t need your camera, turn it off!” said Deputy Speaker Chris d’Entremont, saying his apology had been accepted.