Jubilee Post News & Views
Special Desk
Amid coronavirus pandemic when the world leaders are opting to communicate over the online platforms inside and outside their country, Canada’s parliament went virtual.
Though the initial sessions were marred by glitches and stanzas like ‘Can you hear me now?’ ‘Oh there is an issue with translation’ ‘The minister is being cut off’ ‘Please unclick your mute’ and ‘My son, in the background’ filled the discussion all across yet they could do it.
It happened by assembling MPs across six time zones and giving a rare peek at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s bookcase, a deer head and a stifled opposition. Twice a week, each Tuesday and Thursday, over the past month 338 Canadian MPs logged into Zoom from home to question ministers in lieu of holding a daily in-person question period.
Speaker Anthony Rota said it was a historic day, when it began, while admonishing MPs over sounds of camera clicks as per parliamentary rules. A few others including the British and Latvian parliaments have also gone online to limit spreading of the COVID-19 virus.
‘We cannot be vectors for the virus,’ New Democrat MP Peter Julien told news agency, explaining why his party pushed online to maintain democracy in a crisis. Critics such as Democracy Watch co-founder Duff Conacher lamented that it has diminished the role of the official opposition.
But had a point too. It is difficult in a virtual sessions to put a minister or the prime minister on the spot,’ Conacher said, while claiming the sessions to be chaotic. He also warned of the risk of abuse if parliamentary oversight is curtailed.
But the prime minister, with the backing of New Democrats and the Bloc Quebecois, had said it would be irresponsible to have regular sittings as public health officials urged social distancing.
When people are scattered across the world’s largest democracy (geographically) it takes longer to actually get people on the phone. An MP in Newfoundland might start work at 8:30 am local time, when it’s 4 am in British Columbia. What’s for this now. And that online platforms did not provide sufficient security for in-camera meetings. One MP suggested moving parliament into the Senators’ hockey arena, with 17,000 seats to allow social distancing.
