'OK, let's make history': Hybrid House of Commons convenes to debate COVID-19

"OK, let's make history." With those words from the Speaker of the House of Commons, a hybrid meeting of members of Parliament got underway today.

For the first time in Canada,MPs are being allowed to participate in parliamentary debateeither from their seats in the House of Commons or bylogging in online.

Large screens are suspended on either side of the Speaker's chair, and many of the nearly four dozen MPs present in person are watching them avidly as their colleagues across the country raise a range of issues.

It's not, however, a normal sitting of the House of Commons, with all the rules, traditions and privileges that entails.

Parliament itself is adjourned and has beenlargely replaced by meetings of a special committee focused almost exclusively on the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Conservatives and Bloc Qubcois had argued that was no longer sufficient, but lost out in a vote last night that saw the NDP back a Liberal plan to continue with the COVID-19 committee in the hybrid form that began today.