MP appears in court on harassment, assault charges
Marwan Tabbara, an Ontario Member of Parliament who left the Liberal caucus after it was revealed he faces serious criminal charges, had a brief court date Friday, during which his case was briskly adjourned to next month.
Tabbara, 35, was charged with two counts of assault, one count of break and enter and committing an indictable offence, and one count of criminal harassment on April 10.
The charges were not revealed at the time by Tabbara or Guelph Police Service, however, and did not become public until June 6 after National Post and two other media organizations reported it.
Tabbara, MP for Kitchener South-hespeler, chaired Parliament’s subcommittee on International Human Rights. It was announced he was “stepping back from the Liberal
caucus” but not resigning as an MP.
He has not yet entered a plea on the charges.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier said he did not know of the criminal charges until the day of the media reports.
Meanwhile, CBC reported Friday that the Liberal party knew of an earlier allegation of sexual harassment made against Tabbara.
Tabbara was approved to seek re-election as a Liberal in 2019 despite the party’s internal investigation into allegations of inappropriate touching and unwelcome sexual comments against a female staff member during his initial 2015 election campaign, CBC reported, attributing the information to anonymous party sources.
The Liberal probe substantiated some of the allegations but whether Tabbara faced consequences from it is unknown, according to the report.