Kevin Vuong is a Canadian member of Parliament (M.P.). He attended the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC) Summit in Taipei in that capacity. He was elected in 2021, under an allegation of sexual assault which he denies and that he now attributes to Chinese electoral interference. He was dropped by the Liberal Party of Canada days before the election and sits as an independent M.P.
Can you introduce your background a little bit, where you grew up and sort of what you did before you entered politics?
I’m an entrepreneur, a banker by training. I also have a second career in the Canadian Naval Reserves as a Naval Reserve officer. My parents were actually part of the Chinese diaspora in Vietnam that were persecuted by the Communists and so they escaped with their families and they actually met in the refugee camp in Thailand where they spent two years before they were welcomed to Canada.
And so I think it’s relevant to our discussion because as a member of the Chinese diaspora that actually speaks Cantonese, I was raised on a few things, one of which was how lucky I was to be born and raised in a democracy, that the freedoms that we enjoy in Canada are things that we should not and cannot take for granted, but also the dangers of a radical ideology like communism and the threat that it presents to countries where we care about democracy, where we care about human rights. So all of those sort of things ultimately led to me first to volunteer to join the military in Canada and then ultimately why I thought it would be the Canadian dream to be able to to serve the country that gave my family everything.
And so that Canadian dream, I thought I was on a cusp of living when I was asked in 2021 to run [for parliament], and then that’s where the dream was interfered in magically four days before the general election in Canada. A false allegation of sexual assault from a few years back magically just resurfaced and ultimately my name was dragged through the mud, and I think in my instance I was fortunate in that I was still elected but ultimately still at a deficit because now I needed to rebuild [my] credibility.
The truth always comes out with time, unfortunately never quite as quick as we would like, but we are now at a point now particularly in a discourse in Canada when it comes to foreign interference where people are more aware of the tactics, things like a honey trap which on hindsight was I think what happened to me.
Readers can read coverage of the incident by CBC, the Canadian public broadcaster, here, and the initial reporting by the Toronto Star, which broke the story, here.
Immediately before the election, a previous allegation of sexual assault against Vuong emerged.
The woman whose accusation prompted the sexual assault charge told the Toronto Star that she had only recently discovered Vuong was running for Parliament.
Both parties have stated that they were briefly dating before and when the incident took place in April 2019. The woman whose accusation prompted the sexual assault charge maintains that Vuong assaulted her after they fell asleep together. Vuong denies this.
After the incident, a Crown prosecutor decided it “would not be in the public interest to proceed any further.”
The Liberal Party ended its affiliation with Vuong before the election, saying that he had not been honest about it during the vetting process. Because of the timing, Vuong remained on the ballot as a Liberal Party candidate.
Vuong’s predecessor, Adam Vaughan, said that Vuong should resign after he won under those circumstances.
Vuong has not been readmitted to the Liberal party and sits as an independent member of Parliament.
Vuong maintains that the allegation is false and, since his election, has said that it is a result of Chinese electoral meddling.
I think the other aspect around why I am a cautionary tale for the issue of foreign interference left unaddressed is I’ve been the target of five bomb threats to date, my wife has been stalked and followed, both of us have been followed actually, and our personal home has been targeted. So when people hear about my own lived experience, which is an extreme case of foreign interference, it helps to bring to life why it is important for any country that cares about democracy and human rights to take very strong and definitive action to fight it.
Can you describe what it feels like to receive a bomb threat? Is that a DM on Twitter or did the police contact you?
So this happened in 2022, when we received our first bomb threat. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that we received our first bomb threat when I started speaking out very vocally and publicly in the House of Commons of Canada, as well as other fora, about the issue of Chinese foreign interference. It is scary. There’s no other way of describing it.
It was conveyed to us via an email and in fact the alleged bomber sent us pictures of the alleged bomb they were going to use to blow us up I guess and so it was frightening. I think the attempt is obviously to be able to intimidate us and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated, and so obviously you report it immediately to the sergeant-at-arms who escalated to the Royal Canadian Mountain Police, the Mounties, as well as local police in Toronto. They investigated and my understanding is they tried to find the individual and they tried tracing it to multiple locations and different addresses they had but I never got an update, which I think is both unfortunate but also a bit of an indication that they were unsuccessful in identifying the individual behind it.
One of the things that you immediately think about is not just your own safety but that of your staff and for me, my family. I obviously had to tell my wife but we made the conscious decision at the time not to tell my mother-in-law because she’s a worrier and we also didn’t tell anyone else because we knew that unfortunately there wasn’t much they could do but instead they would just be worried sick, but that’s kind of the decisions that you have to make, that you have to grapple with, that no one should have to.
Who followed you?
This happened two and a half months ago. My wife was out on an evening summer stroll. At the time she was five months pregnant and it’s recommended you stay active. The next morning, Monday morning, my wife and I thought we’d start the week with a nice walk, we woke up to see posters all along the circuitous route that she had taken through our neighborhood with posters claiming that I supported genocide, amongst other things.
And so it was intended to achieve a number of things: one, to let us know that they knew who my wife was; two, that they can follow her and get to us; three, they knew where we lived. That Monday morning we decided, okay we should get our walk in anyway, let’s take these posters down. While we were taking down the posters there was a woman following us in an SUV and my wife was very quick in snapping photos of that individual and getting the license plate, which we immediately then went home and called the sergeant-at-arms. While they were speaking with the federal police, the Mounties, I called [the] local Toronto police, who immediately sent a cruiser to our home. But the reality is local police, unfortunately, they don’t really have the bandwidth nor the expertise to be able to deal with the issue of foreign interference. Foreign operatives know how to intimidate and harass without crossing the line, that threshold into criminality. That’s the issue that Canada has faced for a long time.
Actually it was June 20th of this year where we passed new legislation that specifically created new criminal offenses, with a foreign interference lens, because up until I was stalked I would have been the first to tell you, “Listen, we have offenses around intimidation, coercion, and criminal harassment, it was already there. Why do we need to create new laws?” But the challenge is in the absence of the things that specifically apply a foreign interference lens, you leave it subject to the interpretation of local law enforcement, local officers. They don’t have the training. They don’t have that full view and perspective that is necessary to ensure that we’re appropriately and effectively combating foreign interference.
Obviously without being specific, have you had to take security measures in the wake of this?
What I can share publicly is there is a very robust security system that has been installed in my personal home. I have received a number of briefings from the public safety department in Canada. And I have also been engaged with Canada’s security service to also share insights that I have, as well as what constituents from the Chinese diaspora and other persecuted and targeted communities have shared with me.
Something people are going to wonder when they read this is that if the posters are about Gaza, are you directly alleging a Chinese connection?
Yeah, it is my belief that there is coordination between the Islamic regime in Iran with the Chinese Communist Party. Particularly in the Greater Toronto Area in Canada, which I call home, we’ve seen instances of these Chinese associations, United Front groups, that have taken part in the perpetuation of Hamas propaganda.
I believe there’s coordination in terms of the continued destabilization of Canada. A prime example is there were illegal encampments occupying university campuses in Canada.
There were reports in our media of the funneling of money from international bodies to support these groups. And the reality is, as a member of the Chinese diaspora, you know, Chinese Canadians are very much focused on other issues. So to see these United Front groups to all of a sudden take an interest in this with a very professional translation from English of this pro-Hamas, pro-IRGC [Iranian Revolutionary Guards] propaganda against Israel, that attacks individuals like myself and others who have stood up for the rule of law. Because the reality is the intimidation and harassment in Canada of Canadians, whether they be Jews or others, does nothing to advance a cause for peace in the Middle East. All it does is incites violence and it divides us. And that fits with the M.O. [modus operandi] and the strategic objectives of the Chinese Communist Party, just as it does with the Islamic regime in Iran.
When you mention translation, is that from Chinese to English or back?
English to Chinese. Pro-Hamas messaging translated into Chinese, produced (Who’s paying for it, right?) into professionally made signs that have them out joining these hate protests.
Is that also being distributed online?
It is also being distributed online. There are community association boards for the Chinese diaspora that I used to serve on that had focused on engaging the community that now are so focused on these radical left-wing issues, whether it is the matter of Gaza or focused so much on, for example, in Canada last year, we marked the centennial of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
This was a time where immigration was illegal and it fit with the CCP’s continued M.O. and strategy that anytime you try to fight legitimate foreign interference, one of the things that they’ll whip out is they will accuse someone of being anti-Chinese or racist. So there is an alignment of strategy and coordination across these various groups and it is my belief that it is the Chinese Communist Party working with the Islamic regime in Iran and other bad actors who do not share our democratic values.
Okay, so we need to go back to the honey trap stuff just a little bit. Can you talk a little bit about why you were unable to convince the Liberal Party that this was not an issue worth dropping you over?
Sure. At the end of the day, in politics, it doesn’t matter if the allegation was proven to be false. Sadly the allegation itself often will drive headlines and that is enough. And so when the allegation against me, even though it was withdrawn years ago before, came up in the heat of an election with only four days to go until the general election, the political reality was they needed to be able to end the news cycle and turn the page and the easiest way to do that was to revoke my membership, say “I have nothing to do with Kevin anymore.” And that’s fine, right? That’s just raw, cruel politics. And that’s the industry that we’re in.
Now, since then, there’s been a lot of people that have obviously looked into it. And there’s a few things that I think have led other people to arrive at the conclusion that what happened to me was a honey trap.
I had met an individual, I just wanted to find someone to share my life. And so I met this person in 2018 in November. This is important because this was only a few weeks after I had run unsuccessfully for local Toronto City Council. The election was in October of 2018. I didn’t win, but I think it was clear that I was going to run again at some point.
And during that time, there was a disagreement with another Chinese Canadian candidate, who was actually formerly the member of provincial parliament. His name is Han Dong.
And it became public that he had wanted me to withdraw. And I very publicly told him, no. I would encourage you to look into him, because as a federal member of parliament, [until] very recently a Liberal for all that time, but Liberal also provincially and then later federally.
There have been media reports in Canada, where his conversation with the Toronto Chinese Consul General was tapped, where it’s alleged that he recommended that the Chinese continue to hold on to the Two Michaels [Two Canadian citizens, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor, were held by the PRC for more than 1,000 days after Canada arrested Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou (孟晚舟). They were finally released after Meng was allowed to return to China]. And so those media reports are all out there. But anyway, there’s no love lost between myself and Han Dong.
And when I met this individual, this woman in November 2018, we were dating for a few months. So in April of 2019, she invited me over to spend the evening. In fact, she even offered to give me a ride. Pick me up. We watched the movie. We went to bed and we fell asleep cuddling. This is important because in the middle of the night, she kind of stirred and checked her phone and her moving woke me up.
And she checked her phone and she told me: “Oh, my friend had an argument with her boyfriend, she needs me.” And I’m like “okay, this is weird. It’s past midnight, middle of the night. It is winter in Canada. It is cold. Would you like me to come with you?”
She’s like, “No.” “Okay. Can I stay the night and leave in the morning? Because it’s the middle of the night and it’s cold, and leave as I have previously before?” She’s like, “No problem.” So I fell asleep. Next thing I know, I’m being woken up by a strange woman I have never met before who says I need to leave. So this, okay, this must be her friend. I don’t know. She steps out so I can get dressed. And I tried to call the woman. Didn’t get through. So I left. Go home, fall asleep.
I wake up in the morning to voicemails from Toronto police saying I’ve been accused of sexual assault. The allegation was, I touched her wrong. I mean, we fell asleep touching, right? People will ask, was there a rape kit done? Well, we didn’t actually sleep together that evening. So what kit? Now fast forward seven months later, which apparently is quick within the Canadian criminal justice system. But the case is withdrawn by the Crown without any conditions. Completely bogus.
So now bear in mind that between 2019, when the case is withdrawn and 2021, when I’m asked to run, there’s a two year span where I am pretty public. I’m on the radio all the time. I’m on TV, [there’s] things I’m doing in the community. I’m also a public affairs officer for the military. This is a two-year span where if this individual had felt justice was not served, she could have pursued it, but it was complete radio silence until magically four days before the general election, it resurfaces again. And this fits the M.O. of a honey trap that the Chinese and the Russians have done in multiple jurisdictions against multiple targets.
Right before the summit, it was reported that people have been threatened, or at least pressured [not to attend]. Did you receive anything like that?
No.
I mean, the reality is that on the five poisons or the five key issues that the Chinese are focused on, and this is all unclassified, so I can share this. There’s the issue obviously of Hong Kong, of Taiwan, Tibet, democracy writ large, Falun Gong and the Uyghurs. I have been vocal on all matters, to varying degrees. So at this point they know that if they try to intimidate me, it’s not gonna work, so they didn’t even bother with me.
When did you join IPAC?
Last year.
What was the trigger moment or the point that you decided to?
The issue of fighting foreign interference, particularly from [the] CCP, is too big for any one country to do. It’s something that we have to do together and take a united front. You know, as fellow democracies, we have shared values and there’s strength in that and we have to stand together. And so, I was in New Zealand before this. I delivered a keynote to the New Zealand Institute of International Affairs and I shared new steps that Canada has taken that New Zealand had not yet taken.
And with my own lived experience, to really help to bring to life some of the issues, like I mentioned, about the need for criminal offenses, specifically with the foreign interference lens, and to create a foreign agent registry, steps New Zealand hasn’t taken.
So Canada has a foreign agent registry?
Well, we passed the legislation on June 20th of this year. So, it’s supposed to come. And I think that’s the other aspect of IPAC that is invaluable. Sharing best practices, things that work, things that don’t work for other jurisdictions to look to adapt for their own countries.
How have you found the experience of attending IPAC?
It has been invaluable. It feels a little isolating sometimes and so, being able to come together with parliamentarians from around the world, who have, fortunately, shared, lived experience of being targeted. But also in terms of people who have actively been working on this file. Yeah. It helps to be able to kind of coordinate, collaborate, and share.
[Is this your] first time to Taiwan or no?
First time. Yeah.
General thoughts, opinions, experience?
I think it’s an incredible country. So many people like to fantasize about what China would look like under a democracy. And I would suggest that you don’t need to fantasize about what that looks like. You just need to come to Taiwan and you’ll see that.
What policy should Canada adopt towards Taiwan, on a government level?
I would recommend that the Canadian government look to strengthen our partnership with Taiwan in areas of shared concern, [like] maritime security.
There’s obviously technologies that Canada has that we can help to equip Taiwan with in terms of monitoring the Taiwan Strait. Canada obviously has the world’s longest coastline. We have developed technology services and expertise in that space. We’re also a leader in telecommunications that Taiwan needs. Obviously with the incident of the cutting of the undersea cables there’s a need to build in resilience to ensure Taiwan continues to stay connected [in 2023 both of the submarine internet cables that link the Matsu Islands to Taiwan’s main island were cut by Chinese civilian vessels. Taipei did not directly accuse Beijing of doing so deliberately]. Canada has industry leaders in telecommunications and satellite technology that we can help Taiwan with. I know there have been some actually very large investments from Canadian pension funds into helping Taiwan with energy security, wind farms, other renewable power projects, and I think that those are things that we should continue to build on.
How should Canada approach China on a government to government level?
My recommendation would be for Canada to ultimately challenge China on issues of human rights whether it is Xinjiang, whether it is a dismantling of Hong Kong’s democratic institutions or or even the oppression of the Tibetan people. I think those are universal human right issues that Canada needs to continue to advocate for, and we can’t to be a country that protects human rights if we don’t advocate for it abroad as well, too
[The] reality is there is a burgeoning trade relationship between the two countries, and I think you have to collaborate where you can. I think the hope is always that you can delineate and separate out the politics and any government at any particular time, from a longstanding people to people relationship. There are many people of Chinese heritage, myself included, and I dream of a future one day where I can actually visit China and see all of the thousands of years worth of history and civilization, without fear for my safety.
All of the people at IPAC are backbenchers who have, let’s say, an ability to speak freely, and their colleagues who are in cabinet basically don’t, right?
Correct.
You mentioned this need to balance trade. What should ministers who don’t have freedom to speak, how should they actually balance those issues? And specifically on trying to delineate issues, China doesn’t like to delineate, right? So what strategy should Canada have for that?
So it’s interesting. Usually, I think the approach or strategy by ministers, and I imagine this is not the case exclusively for just Canadians, but I think writ large, is to talk about the positive things and talk about the, quote-unquote, negative things behind the scenes. I think you need to turn that strategy on its head. Yeah. It is to work quietly on those positive things to build on and criticize them rightfully on matters, human rights and other things publicly. Because the reality is China is, if you’re going to really bring it down to its most simple terms, a bully. You have to stand up to bullies. Kowtowing does not work. And if you look at Canada’s approach, it has been kowtowing.
It has been deferential to China. And how has that helped us? The matter of the two Michaels, right? Which was effectively hostage diplomacy. As I understand it, our officials had tried initially to quietly do it behind the scenes. That unfortunately did not work, and credit to our officials in realizing that and ultimately starting to confront China publicly, but also then doing what IPAC has done to bring other like-minded countries, other democracies together. Because people need to realize that if it can happen to Canada, it can happen to any other country. Just like what happened to me in terms of a false allegation. It can happen to anyone else.
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