Liberal Candidate Overthrown by Spadina-Fort York Kevin Vuong Leads Equestrian – Toronto | The Canadian News

Liberal Spadina-Fort York candidate Kevin Vuong, with whom the party cut ties days before the election following an investigation into a past sexual assault allegation in 2019, is currently leading and is expected to win the race.

The race was too close to call once the polls closed at 9:30 p.m. Monday, yet on Tuesday morning, Vuong got 37.9 percent of the vote with 128 of 129 poll reports.

Nearby, with 35 percent of the vote, is NDP candidate Norm Di Pasquale.

The Liberal party asked Vuong to “stop” his campaign on Friday, and on Saturday, the party said it would no longer be affiliated with the Liberals.

“We take any allegations very seriously,” a Liberal Party spokesman said in an emailed statement to Global News at the time.

Since it was too late to remove him from the ballot, the party added that “if elected, he will not be a member of the liberal caucus.”

Vuong, who has been in the Naval Reserves since 2015, is also under review by the Canadian Armed Forces.

He became the Liberal candidate to ride after Liberal MP Adam Vaughan announced that he would not seek reelection in the summer.

Global News contacted Vuong and his representatives multiple times to comment on this story, but a response was never received.

The Toronto star, Who was the first medium to report the story? reported receiving a statement from Vuong where he “unequivocally states (d) that these allegations are false” and that he “vigorously fought” the matter in court. The case was dropped in late November 2019. It was also reported that he did not address the allegations in that statement.

Global News spoke with the plaintiff on Friday afternoon.

The woman, whom Global News agreed not to identify, confirmed the details described in Star’s report.

The alleged victim said that she was in the United States for two months and only upon returning to Canada did she realize that Vuong was the liberal candidate in her leadership.

“I didn’t even know that he was involved in politics,” he said.

The woman said she saw her name on an election poster and immediately paused.

“I started having a breakdown because I realized that I hadn’t heard anything and all of a sudden … was he allowed to run for office?” she said.

“It scares me. It scares me. I don’t even want to walk my dog ​​outside my house because I just don’t want to see his signs …

“I definitely don’t want to be represented by someone who essentially abused me and I don’t want to see their name everywhere.”

–With files from Emerald Bensadoun, Nick Westoll and Ahmar Khan