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Sleepy time: Tory MP Rob Anders says he wasn’t snoozing at veterans conference

Conservative MP Rob Anders is denying reports by the Ottawa Citizen that he fell asleep during a presentation on veterans’ homelessness by the group Veterans Emergency Transition Services in Halifax.

The article quotes Jim Lowther, the group’s president, saying Anders arrived 10 minutes late, and then, “He was putting his arms up and rubbing his face. Then he started texting and then just slept for the rest. He almost smashed his head on the table, he was that out of it.”

Then came Mr. Anders’s surprising rebuke: not only did he deny having taken a snooze, he accused the group of being NDP “hacks” and admirers of Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Lowether noted he is actually a member of the Conservative Party.

It’s the second time the MP is caught napping at the job. Last fall, this video capturing the moment Anders falls asleep in the House of Commons went viral. At the time, his staff explained he had been “in a car accident,” causing the sleepiness.

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