Marwan Tabbara spent Easter weekend in jail following his arrest after allegedly breaking into a house he'd been stalking and proceeding to assault a woman and man inside.
The sitting Liberal Member of Parliament was released following an online bail hearing and the news was kept quiet, according to the National Post.
Tabbara posted a Facebook message from jail:
“Thank you, Frontline workers and your families in Kitchener. We are thinking of you and thank you for keeping us healthy,” said the post which included a video of Kitchener police officers and paramedics driving past a hospital in honour of essential medical workers.
“We learned about this issue — the arrest, the charges, everything that had happened — on Friday,” Trudeau said, after the news was published by National Post and other sources on June 5—about two months after the incident.
“Everyone in a leadership role carries a responsibility for transparency and to be open and honest, otherwise it becomes difficult to create a sense of trust and safety,” said chief executive officer of the Women’s Crisis Services of Waterloo Region, Jennifer Hutton.
“For too long violence against women has been viewed as a personal and private matter rather than a public one. Everyone has a role to play in ending violence against women,” she said. “Community leaders are held to a higher account and there is a need for authenticity because they are in a position of trust and power.”
Guelph police said they did not release the information because Tabbara was not seen as a threat to the public.
Police said in a written statement that they do not release every incident to the media and Tabbara’s arrest was “not brought to the attention of the media office.”
Tabbara was released and had to pay $1,000 if he breached any conditions of his release. The Speaker’s Office reported that the rule is generally not followed.
“This practice is no longer scrupulously and/or consistently followed,” said Heather Bradley, a spokesperson for the Speaker’s Office. “Parliamentary authorities note that the failure to inform the Speaker or the House has not been viewed as a matter of privilege.”
Mark Holland, who runs caucus management did not know about the arrest, according to his chief of staff, Charles-Eric Lepine.
“The whip has the responsibility to ensure that caucus members are provided with the proper support,” Lepine said. “As such, members have the responsibility to inform the whip of any serious situation which they may have been involved.”
Tabbara has just resigned from his position as chair of the House of Commons subcommittee on international human rights.
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