Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg will be summoned to appear before a federal committee the next time they set foot in Canada.

That comes after the two heads of the controversial company snubbed a subpoena order to appear before the International Grand Committee on Big Data, Privacy and Democracy, sending domestic representatives in their stead.

In an unprecedented move on Tuesday, Canadian MPs on the House of Commons access to information, privacy and ethics committee — which is hosting international policy-makers as part of the International Grand Committee — voted to hit the top bosses at the social media giant with an order to appear without a time limit and direct the chair of the committee to reconvene the members even if the chamber is not sitting.

In theory, that means that if Zuckerberg or Sandberg were to come north for a conference, a bailiff would issue a summons as soon as they arrive on Canadian soil and order them to appear before the House of Commons access to information, privacy and ethics committee.

In practice, though, such a move has never been taken before.

But Canadian MPs said the decision was necessary given what Conservative MP Bob Zimmer, chair of the committee, called an “abhorrent” decision to ignore a legal order to appear.

More to come.

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