By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2026-06-10 00:51:06 | Updated at 2026-06-10 18:03:21
18 hours ago
Liberal members of Canada's parliament desperately tried to silence a conservative member when he asked the country's chief science advisor to define a woman.
At a recent meeting of the parliament's Standing Committee on Science and Research, conservative Member of Parliament (MP) Vincent Ho asked, 'What is the definition of a woman?'
The simple question immediately sparked outrage with other members of the committee, who jumped down Ho's throat and seemingly attempted to prevent Chief Science Advisor Mona Nemer from replying.
Ho asked the scientist: 'Before you became chief science advisor, you were a molecular geneticist by training, right? So you know a thing or two about X and Y chromosomes. So, I wanted to ask you, what is the definition of a woman?'
Immediately, Liberal Party of Canada MP John-Paul Danko took issue with the question and said: 'Point of order, chair. Point of order.'
A point of order is a formal request to enforce chamber rules addressed to a speaker or committee chair, and it is typically issued when MPs believe there has been a breach of procedure.
'It is pride month, in understanding Order 18, which prohibits personal attacks, insults and offensive language,' Danko continued, before Committee Chair Salma Zahid interrupted him and said: 'This is getting into debate.'
Undeterred, Danko raised his voice and said, 'Where this question is going is highly offensive. Highly offensive. I ask the member to withdraw his comments.'
Vincent Ho, a conservative member of Canada's parliament, sparked outrage from liberal members when he asked the question, 'What is the definition of a woman'
Ho had addressed his question to Chief Science Advisor Mona Nemer, who was only able to answer the question after two liberal MPs tried to stop Ho from asking it
Liberal Party of Canada MP Taleeb Noormohamed (pictured) and MP John-Paul Danko, who is of the same party, both raised points of order against Ho's simple question
Zahid, who is also a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, then repeated, 'This is getting into debate. I will deal with it. MP Ho, I would request to be respectful of everybody.'
The conservative MP explained that he was asking the question because the Census asks people to state their gender and sex, and he wanted to understand the chief science advisor's 'view on this.'
Another Liberal Party of Canada MP, Taleeb Noormohamed, then also raised a point of order and said: 'The witness is here in her capacity as the chief science advisor.
'Her opinion on any matter as an individual is actually not relevant to her mandate. And so if the question is in the scope of her mandate, I would be interested to see if Mr Ho could rephrase the question... within the context of her mandate.'
Zahid accepted the point of order and asked Ho to reframe his question, to which the conservative MP replied, 'I just want to hear the answer.'
After a bit more back and forth, Nemer, the chief science advisor, was finally able to answer Ho's question.
Committee Chair Salma Zahid, who is also a member of the Liberal Party of Canada, accepted both points of order against Ho's question, but he was still able to get an answer to it
The back-and-forth took place at a recent meeting of the Standing Committee on Science and Research. When Nemer was finally able to answer the question, she defined a woman as 'someone with two X chromosomes'
'Genetically speaking, we define female as, in the animal kingdom, as someone with two X chromosomes,' she said.
Ho then further explained the reasoning behind his question and said: 'It's important because we have events... you were attending an event back in February about the success of women in STEM.
'It's important that we know what the definition of a woman would be because we're celebrating the achievements of women in STEM.'
The simple question that received an equally simple answer continued to stir outrage from liberal MPs after the meeting was over.
Danko, who had raised the first point of order against Ho's question, wrote on X: 'Absolutely disgusting anti-trans behaviour by @vincentneilho during #pridemonth - deliberately generating hatred, division and bigotry. And he's proud of himself.'
But many X users in the tweet's replies expressed support for Ho.
Users on X expressed support for MP Ho in the pictured tweet and those below
'It is telling the liberals tried to censor the answer. It is not transphobic to acknowledge biological facts and reality. Your virtue signalling can’t save you from the fact your government is against women’s sex based rights,' one person wrote.
'Disgusting gas lighting of women Canada wide that you can’t even define their sex. You should be ashamed of yourself and the blatant harm you are causing women with this outrageous virtue signalling [sic]. History will not be kind to you,' another said.
'Great job @vincentneilho. Liberals wouldn’t know real science if it slapped them in the face and they definitely wouldn’t admit it,' said a third.
