Tory MP Rob Anders removed from veterans committee
Posted Mar 29, 2012 06:57:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The head of a local veterans organization says he’s pleased to hear Tory MP Rob Anders has been removed from the House of Commons veterans affairs committee.
Anders came under fire recently for apparently falling asleep during a presentation in Halifax by homeless veterans earlier this month – and then firing insults at members of the group who criticized him.
Anders was quietly shuffled Wednesday from the committee and reassigned to the Joint Senate-House scrutiny of regulations committee.
Jim Lowther, head of Veterans Emergency Transition Services (VETS), tells the Rick Howe Show Anders had to go.
“You can’t be on a veterans affairs committee, and then slam the veterans you’re supposed to be helping,” he said. “It’s just foolish.”
Conservative MP Joe Preston, who chairs the procedure and House affairs committee, tabled a report in Parliament Wednesday that received the necessary approval required for the switch of committee assignments.
Anders had apologized for the verbal attacks on veterans in a statement that was released by the Prime Minister’s Office.
The statement quoted Anders as saying he has enormous respect for those who have served their country.
But it wasn’t enough to save his spot on the veterans committee.
“It is clear that over the past couple of months Conservative MP Rob Anders has become a distraction to the work of the Veterans Affairs Committee,” Liberal critic Sean Casey said in a statement Wednesday.
“The Conservatives put on a brave face when resisting calls from veterans to remove Mr. Anders as a result of his habit of sleeping during Committee meetings.”
Anders was also apparently caught falling asleep in the House of Commons last year, a moment captured on camera. The subsequent YouTube video was widely viewed.
