Liberal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna took full responsibility on Wednesday for a tweet issued on her ministerial account which praised Syria for joining the Paris Climate Accord.
“A mistake was made. I take full responsibility as minister,” Mckenna said in the House of Commons on Wednesday. “We deleted the tweet within half an hour and I, on my personal Twitter account, said that ‘it’s unacceptable.’”
READ MORE: Catherine McKenna accidentally praises Syria on Twitter, blames staff for error
Afterwards, McKenna was asked about the error by reporters and she said she fully understood why Canadians were upset with the error.
“Look, I’m a human rights lawyer. I know more than anyone that the murderous Assad regime and the actions that they’re committing, atrocities against their own people are completely unacceptable,” She told reporters.
The tweet in question read “Canada Salutes Nicaragua and Syria for joining on to the Paris Agreement! Global #Climateaction #Cop23,” and was posted Tuesday night.
When Mckenna was called out for the tweet by Conservative MP Lisa Raitt, she noted that a mistake had been made.
The fact she blamed her staff rather than issuing a mea culpa also caused problems with some.
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Syria has stated that it will join the Paris Cliame Accord recently althoughit has yet to file any official documents to do so.
The country, which is racked by civil war, and Nicaragua were the only two nations outside the 195-nation pact when it was agreed in 2015.