[Faceman]

Well, this obviously is a "politicians don't know what they are talking about" case. Tapping your child on the hand to prevent him/her from severe burning is not illegal in any country because (and I just assume for the love of logic that all lawbooks are similar in that context): It is not illegal to commit an illegal act which is necessary to DIRECTLY AVOID a more severe damage/harm. So for example it is of course legal to cross a red light in order to save a child from an approaching car. It's also legal if you injure the kid in the process (of falling down) because you have avoided his/her death.

My guess is:

The Canadian guy wanted to derail the debate from actual spanking to a topic where slapping a child was okay (emergency).
The Egyptian guy wanted to disagree but instead of: "This is a completely different situation and was not the topic of our discussion" he resorted to negating a commonly accepted fact. Not very thougtful.