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A full month after pledging to deal with a sexual assault cost levelled in opposition to him in 2019 and since withdrawn, newly-elected Toronto MP Kevin Vuong has remained silent on the subject and out of sight.
Nonetheless lively on social media — reposting messages from the prime minister and different Liberals — Vuong has not publicly responded to questions from constituents about why he did not disclose particulars about his previous to the social gathering or the general public.
Vuong ran as Liberal candidate to exchange retiring MP Adam Vaughan within the downtown driving of Spadina—Fort York. After it emerged late within the marketing campaign that Vuong had been charged beforehand with sexual assault — a cost that was later dropped — the social gathering disavowed Vuong as a candidate and stated that if he have been elected, he wouldn’t function a Liberal MP.
That change got here too late. All ballots within the driving nonetheless listed Vuong, a naval reservist and regulation faculty graduate, because the Liberal candidate.
![](https://thumbnails.cbc.ca/maven_legacy/thumbnails/163/1011/elex-kevin-vuong-daigle-230921.jpg?crop=1.777xh:h;*,*&downsize=510px:* 510w")
Newly elected Impartial MP Kevin Vuong says he’ll signify his Toronto driving, regardless of rising stress for him to resign so a byelection might be held. Vuong was dropped by the Liberal social gathering days earlier than the election due to previous allegations of sexual assault. 1:51
On Sep. 22, two days after the vote, Vuong stated he would “work laborious to earn [voters’] belief” and later confirmed in a separate assertion that he would sit as an MP with out social gathering affiliation. As for the previous sexual assault allegation, he wrote: “I intend to deal with them at a later date extra wholly in a devoted discussion board.”
Since then, each statements have been faraway from his Twitter web page and Vuong has not returned texts, calls, emails and Twitter direct messages from CBC Information.
On Wednesday, a journalist visited the Spadina Ave. deal with listed on Vuong’s new Home of Commons webpage. A constructing listing advised the workplace nonetheless belonged to “Adam Vaughan, MP” and a message posted on the door directed constituency issues to Vaughan, the earlier occupant.
Vuong tweeted this week about organising his new constituency workplace: “What’s inside our management, we’ve got been diligent to shortly motion.”
Another new MPs arrived in Ottawa for orientation on Sep. 27 however CBC was unable to verify whether or not Vuong appeared, in individual or just about.
A former marketing campaign staffer stated they didn’t know whether or not Vuong had been sworn in as an MP but; some swearing-in ceremonies are being held in personal as a result of pandemic protocols.
A spokesperson for the Workplace of the Speaker of the Home of Commons stated they couldn’t affirm whether or not Vuong had been sworn in however stated all MPs would must be earlier than taking their seats.
A few of Vuong’s constituents stated they obtained no solutions to their questions after reaching out to his workplace.
Nataliya Gurba emailed and tweeted at Vuong asking why he hasn’t resigned after working as a Liberal and being compelled to sit down as an Impartial. Gurba obtained a normal, computerized e-mail response.
“As we’re presently within the course of of creating our constituency procedures and protocols, please word that there could also be longer than common response occasions,” the e-mail reads.
“I am very involved that he has not addressed the allegations from his previous,” Gurba instructed CBC Information. “He has talked about rebuilding belief with the neighborhood, however to me, constructing belief begins with taking accountability.”
An internet petition calling on Vuong to resign obtained greater than 5,000 signatures.
Sexual assault cost dropped in 2019
Court docket paperwork affirm Vuong, now 32, was charged in Toronto in April 2019 with one rely of sexual assault. The cost was withdrawn the next November, stated a spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of the Legal professional Basic. The cost was first reported by the Toronto Star.
The Crown “is obligation certain to withdraw expenses if there isn’t any affordable prospect of conviction, or if it isn’t within the public curiosity to proceed,” ministry spokesperson Miranda Prescott stated in an e-mail.
In an announcement that was tweeted and later deleted, Vuong stated the case centred on “an off-the-cuff however intimate relationship” and that he “understood every thing to be consensual.”
Officers concerned in Vuong’s Liberal marketing campaign stated he was formally requested not less than two questions through the social gathering’s vetting course of that ought to have prompted him to reveal the 2019 sexual assault cost. They stated Vuong was requested whether or not he’d ever been criminally charged and whether or not something in his previous may, if revealed, embarrass him or the social gathering.
The Canadian Armed Forces additionally said it was reviewing Vuong’s file after the navy realized of the 2019 case in September. Members — together with reservists like Vuong — are required to share legal expenses with their chain of command.
“It’s totally laborious within the vetting course of to uncover secrets and techniques if the individual that you are counting on to be trustworthy does not inform the reality,” Vaughan, the previous Liberal MP, just lately instructed CBC.
Vaughan stated he instructed Vuong on election evening that he must resign if he gained as a result of “to assert victory on these pretences, with this type of a cloud over his head, was flawed.”
Vuong was additionally named in a $1.5 million lawsuit filed by a former affiliate over a pandemic mask-making enterprise. Vuong denied the accusations made within the lawsuit. They haven’t been confirmed in courtroom. Vaughan stated he hadn’t been made conscious of that case both earlier than it was reported within the media.
On social media on Sep. 25, Vuong stated he needed to “apologize for the shortage of disclosure.” He later eliminated the publish.
‘Impartial’ MP?
Vuong vowed in that very same deleted message to function an Impartial MP. However constituents could possibly be forgiven for not being conscious of his cut up with the Liberals.
His Twitter web page, official web site and LinkedIn profile listing him as an elected MP — however all keep away from including the “Impartial” designation. Elections Canada nonetheless lists him because the Liberal candidate who gained Spadina—Fort York. And as of Wednesday afternoon, Vuong had retweeted not less than 21 posts by former or present Liberal MPs and federal ministries within the earlier week.
Parliament is ready to return on Nov. 22. MPs have the facility to expel a member from the Commons however that hasn’t been achieved since 1947.
“This is not the one candidate this has occurred to,” Nelson Wiseman, a College of Toronto political science professor, instructed CBC after the election. “We have had NDP, Conservative and Liberal candidates who’ve been disowned by their social gathering after the ballots have been printed.
“The distinction right here is he is the one one who received elected.”
With information from CBC’s Victoria Stunt, Laura Clementson, Chris Rands, Jamie Strashin, Nicole Brockbank, Ashley Burke, Jessica Ng, Megan McCleister and Michelle Tune
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