Guelph police didn’t make public the arrest of Liberal MP
GUELPH — Guelph police say they didn’t inform the public about assault charges against a member of Parliament because the service didn’t believe he posed a risk to the public.
In a statement released Thursday night, police said no further information would be released about the arrest of Marwan Tabbara, MP for Kitchener South-Hespeler.
Court documents acquired by The Record show Tabbara was arrested in Guelph on April 9, charged with two counts of assault, one count of breaking and entering to commit an indictable offence, and one count of criminal harassment.
The statement says the police service follows section 41 and regulation 265/98 of the Police Services Act in deciding what information should be released to the public.
Under the cited regulation, the act says chiefs of police — and their designates — may release information to the public if they believe the accused person poses a risk to the public and making information available would reduce that risk.
Reached Friday morning, Guelph police media officer Brian Murphy said police won’t be commenting further on Tabbara’s arrest. He said the police service does not release the names of any accused person in their daily media releases.
“The only time we’re going to release names are based on the authority provided to us under that act, such as when there’s a risk to the public.”
When asked why police didn’t release information about a 35year-old Cambridge man who was arrested on assault allegations, leaving out Tabbara’s name, Murphy said the service responds to more than 200 calls a day.
“Not all of those calls make the media release.”
On June 5, media outlets were reporting the allegations against the local MP. Within hours of these news reports, Tabbara announced he would be stepping back from the Liberal caucus, but promised to continue to work for his constituents.
The Prime Minister’s Office said it only learned about the charges on the morning of June 5 and was “looking into the matter.”
Tabbara, first elected in 2015 and re-elected last fall, is scheduled to appear in court June 19.