OTTAWA—Liberal MP Michael Ma says he’s seeking to correct a parliamentary record he believes misrepresented his comments on forced labour in China — and insists that he was not given the opportunity to edit the remarks, despite the Speaker’s office stating that was the case.
Ma found himself in hot water after a March meeting of the House of Commons industry committee, in which the Markham—Unionville MP appeared to cast doubt on the existence of forced labour in China’s Xinjiang region, where reports of the practice, which Beijing denies, have been documented.
After the meeting, he apologized for his remarks, but said he was actually referring to the city of Shenzhen, and not the Xinjiang region.
“I stand by my previous statement that I was referring to Shenzhen — that is what I heard,” Ma wrote in an email to the Star on Friday. “With regard to the transcripts of (the meeting), I have reached out to several relevant authorities to see what can be done to correct the record.”
The Star reported Thursday that, according to the office of the Speaker of the House of Commons, committee audio not only “clearly captured the word ‘Xinjiang,’” but that MPs and the committee clerk were given the opportunity to review the draft transcript and request corrections, and that “no correction was submitted during that process.”
When asked why Ma — who crossed the floor from the Conservatives to the Liberals in December — did not avail himself of that opening, the MP suggested no such opportunity was directly offered.
“Members are never informed about when committee transcripts are released, what the time frame is for request alterations, nor what the process is to request changes,” Ma’s office responded in a separate email. The MP’s office said that before responding, it consulted with industry committee chair and Liberal MP Ben Carr, who also consulted the committee’s clerk.
Neither the Speakers’ office nor the clerk of the committee responded to the Star’s requests for clarification on the matter.
While MPs are typically offered the opportunity to review and revise their remarks in House of Commons debates before the official parliamentary record is published, committee procedure only states that official transcripts are translated and edited prior to publication, without specifying how they are edited.
The contentious March 26 committee meeting, in which Ma repeatedly asked witness and Canada-China relations expert Margaret McCuaig-Johnston how she knew forced labour in China was taking place, mired both the MP and Prime Minister Mark Carney in controversy for several days, after both were evasive in answering questions on the existence of the practice in Xinjiang.
