It was a long day of meetings here in Delhi India for Co p7 the tobacco control convention for the World Health Organization and just as our day was coming to an end just five minutes before the clock struck six that's when the president of the conference said that we'd wrap things up until there was a motion to restrict all further portions of the entire conference to media you heard me right they wanted to ban the entire media delegation from the further proceedings that would go down here in Delhi despite the fact that some of us including we at the rebel traveled over 14 hours to get here spent a lot of money and are looking forward to asking a lot of tough questions well I for one was shocked and didn't understand what was happening I've covered a lot of conventions and this was totally unprecedented for me but what was even weirder even stranger even more absurd was the fact that the motion carried with unanimous consent no one not even the Canadian delegation voted to keep the media keep the scrutiny keep the transparency within its walls for the duration of the summit well we're from Canada and so I wanted to ask the Canadian delegation those folks who are here in Delhi because of your taxpayer-funded money why didn't they vote to help keep us inside the walls of the conference for the duration of the week this is how it went down there's a whole group of delegation from Canada that did not stand up for transparency or scrutiny of the press we've just been banned from the duration of the summit Canada is a country where we believe in freedom of the press we believe in scrutiny we believe in in free and fair debate why does that change when you come here to a World Health Organization summit no comment is there any room for for comment or dissent at this organization whatsoever with respect Canadian Taxpayers have have funded everyone's way here we understood that there's gonna be a delegation that represented Canadian interests not a single person from the Canadian delegation stood up for Canadian media to be witness to what is gonna transpire over the next week any comment whatsoever Canadian delegation this is not how things work in Canada whose interests are you representing here no comment Canadian media talking to a Canadian delegation about concerns about issues that concern the Canadian people if you'd like to have a conversation yes on the Canadian media I'm happy to do that with you with respect what's happening behind closed doors this week is going to affect some six billion people worldwide including Canadian taxpayers Canadian taxpayers have a right to know what policy is being created behind closed doors the entire organization has just voted unanimously to ban Canadian media we deserve some answers I'd like to get them from you a member of our delegation I'm going to try and understand exactly what this decision means how it plays out what that looks like I understand what it means for moving forward I understand what the...
