Who is Conservative MP Wai Young?

Young recently compared Tories to Jesus, claimed CSIS knew a bomb was on downed Air India flight in 1985. Here’s what you need to know about the Conservative MP.

Conservative MP Wai Young has raised eyebrows — and drawn ridicule online — aftershe compared the Tories to Jesus.

The party’s push to enact Bill C-51, among other criminal justice legislation, was comparable to Jesus, who “served and acted to always do the right thing, not the most popular thing,” Young said.

She backtracked this week on an earlier claim that Canada’s spy agency knew there was a bomb on the Air India flight, which exploded over the coast of Ireland in 1985, killing 329 people.

Here’s what you need to know about the MP:

1. Election 2011

Young was born in Hong Kong and raised in Vancouver, where she graduated from Killarney Secondary School.

Young holds a sociology degree from the University of British Columbia. She has twins, and has been a foster mother for seven foster children.

She was elected to represent the Vancouver South riding in 2011 after she unseated Liberal incumbent, Ujjal Dosanjh. She is co-chair of the Canada-China Legislative Association, and a member of the Standing Committees of Transport, and Status of Women.

2. Endorsed by man acquitted in Air India bombing

During the 2011 election campaign, Dosanjh accused Young of campaigning with Ripudaman Singh Malik, one of the men acquitted in the Air India bombings.

Dosanjh said Young received Malik’s endorsement during a meeting at B.C. Khalsa School (of which Malik is a co-founder), and said teachers and parents were urged to support her.

Young denied the allegation. “Had I known he would be present or was involved with the school, I never would have attended,” Young said in a statement at the time.

“No one involved with the school, or Mr. Malik, is involved in my campaign, nor have I ever asked for his support. I strongly stand against terrorism.”

3. Controversy over federal contracts

The Conservatives refuted accusations of wrongdoing in 2008 after awarding a federal contract to Young’s consulting firm a few months after she ran for election as a party candidate.

The Canadian Press reported that Young’s firm received $578,590 from Citizenship and Immigration Canada to organize a conference in Toronto on teaching English to new immigrants.

The contract was awarded in April 2008, three months after Young was nominated to run for the Tories in South Vancouver.

She lost by just 20 votes in that election after a federal recount, according to data released by Simon Fraser University.

4. Legal fight with family

Members of Young’s family came out publicly to say they would not vote for her in 2011.

The Vancouver Province obtained court documents that showed Young was embroiled in a legal dispute with her siblings over their late father’s estate.

Her sister, Wai Ling Siu, filed a lawsuit in small claims court alleging that Young had not paid back a $14,000-loan from her father. Young said her father gave her the money as a gift, and would not comment on the alleged family feud, the newspaper said.

5. Bill to ‘protect critical infrastructure’

In December 2014, Young introduced Bill C-639 “to protect critical infrastructure.”

The legislation aimed to create a new offence in the Criminal Code that would make it illegal for anyone to destroy or damage critical infrastructure, or interrupt the use of that infrastructure.

The bill, she said, will “ensure that the consequences for those who commit these types of crimes reflect the severity of the offence.”

6. Foreign policy

Young was a member of a delegation to Israel in 2013, organized by The Centre for Israel & Jewish Affairs (CIJA).

In a debrief with CIJA after the study tour, Young reportedly “told the assembled group that her personal support for Israel is based on the ‘values shared by Canada and Israel,’ as well as the importance of Canada’s alliance with the only democracy in the region.”

She lauded the Canada-Korea free trade agreement last year in the House of Commons, and, in April, she welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Vancouver.

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