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Photo by Meghan Balogh/The Whig-Standard/Postmedia Network

Last week, Derek Sloan, a Conservative MP, fired a few broadsides at Dr. Theresa Tam, Canada’s chief public health officer. On Twitter, he called for her to be fired, and among his many valid (or at least defensible) criticisms of Tam, the World Health Organization and the Chinese government, he said that Tam “needs to work for Canada. Not for the WHO or any other foreign entity.” In a video, he was more explicit, asking, “Does she work for Canada or for China?”

It’s one thing to question a public official’s competence, another their loyalty to the country, and given that Tam is of Chinese heritage, Sloan’s comments could easily have been perceived (and they sure were!) as bigoted. His refusal to walk back or clarify that part of his remarks locked in the worst-possible interpretation of them as the only one a reasonable observer could reach.

And Scheer … did nothing. Asked repeatedly last week for comment, he simply refused to address the matter. Finally, this week, Scheer got around to agreeing that Sloan shouldn’t have questioned Tam’s loyalty to Canada.

No kidding. Criticism is legitimate, and necessary. Implying someone is disloyal is not. That took a week? If Scheer is going to state the blindingly obvious, why not state it early on? The problem isn’t even his mild (at best) rebuke of Sloan. It’s that he had to think long and hard before bothering to issue it.

Photo by Adrian Wyld / THE CANADIAN PRESS

There’s two key issues here. The first is that Tam (and the federal response more generally) should be open to robust examination and, when warranted, criticism. The WHO and China are likewise entirely proper targets for scrutiny and, when warranted, condemnation. This is essential, in fact. But it is a lot harder to do those necessary things responsibly when the Conservatives are letting one MP set the tone. Other Tory MPs did indeed criticize Sloan’s comments, but Scheer is the leader until he isn’t — and a leader, even an outgoing one, needs to lead. Scheer’s silence is not only a disservice to his party, but to the cause of accountability.