West Vancouver MP John Weston has defended his absence from the House of Commons during a vote to extend Canada’s military mission against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, saying he supports the mission but had previously committed to accompanying the tourism minister to his riding to present an important report.
“I knew the vote was going to pass and pledged my support for the mission,” Weston said.
“I have been present for most votes,” he said, but added on that day, “I certainly felt my presence was critical here in the riding.”
Weston responded after former general Rick Hillier took to social media to criticize MPs who were absent for the March 30 vote to extend and expand Canada’s military mission against the Islamic State, referred to as ISIS or ISIL.
Hillier, who previously headed the Canadian Forces as chief of defence staff, wrote a message on his personal Facebook account saying the 37 MPs who were absent for the vote “should be ashamed” that they “could not find it a high enough priority to be in the House of Commons when Parliament voted to extend and expand the mission against ISIL. They could not prioritize their lives and schedules sufficiently to be there when that most sacred trust — sending Canada’s sons and daughters in harms way, to do violent things on our behalf — was decided.”
Weston said he was in West Vancouver to help the minister present a report of the tourism roundtable that represented two years of work by stakeholders at a meeting planned “well in advance of the vote.”
Weston added nobody has raised his absence for the vote directly with him, although about half a dozen comments were made on social media.
“Being the son of an ex-prisoner of war I do take very seriously the notion of our government sending people into harm’s way,” he said.
