Justice committee votes to expunge words of Christchurch shooter from record
Posted June 4, 2019 8:30 am.
OTTAWA — The name and words of the man accused of killing 51 people in Christchurch, New Zealand will be expunged from the parliamentary record after a vote in the House of Commons justice committee Tuesday.
Liberal MP Randy Boissonnault put forward the motion at the beginning of Tuesday’s meeting on online hate and it passed 6-0, with the three Conservative members of the committee abstaining.
The vote comes a week after Conservative MP Michael Cooper named and quoted from the manifesto of the accused Christchurch shooter during an exchange with a witness.
On Saturday, Cooper apologized for his actions, and Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer announced Cooper would no longer serve on the committee.
Boissonnault called Monday for Cooper to be booted from the Tory caucus, saying Scheer’s response was “insufficient.”
Scheer, who in his Saturday statement said he considered the matter closed, said Monday he had accepted Cooper’s apology, and criticized the Liberals for trying to score points on the incident and for their own prior missteps on social media.
The Canadian Press
