Senator Ngo was appointed in 2012 on the advice of Stephen Harper as a Senator for Ontario (Senate, 2012).^[423]

Immigrant advocate groups and media style guides warn that there is no mechanism by which an individual or group could become a spokesperson for an entire ethnic community. (New Canadian Media, 2016).^[371]

The fact that Senator Ngo is of Vietnamese origin does not make him a spokesperson for Vietnamese Canadians. The problem is that most people don't read media style guides and immigrant advocacy advice, and they make assumptions. Another problem is that senator does much to influence those assumptions.

A news story where he was being criticized for his high travel expenses said:

Ngo says he is doing what he is supposed to do. “Travelling across Canada to visit all the community across Canada…the Vietnamese community. That’s it,” … His website shows how busy he’s been, visiting Vietnamese groups in Montreal, Vancouver, Toronto, Calgary and California.

(Bourbeau & Lindell, 2013).^[428]

The Senator's Senate biography contains three sentences about his history with Vietnam:

Senator Ngo immigrated to Canada in 1975 following the fall of Saigon and the rise of communism. ... While living in Vietnam, he worked for the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Vietnam, where he served as a diplomatic press attaché at the Vietnamese embassy in Bangkok, Thailand. ... [He]graduated with a bachelor’s degree in arts and social sciences from the University of Paris-Sorbonne.

(Senate, 2012).^[423]

Those facts establish that the Senator was a member of the urban ruling class in Saigon, and he visibly maintains that identity in Vietnamese society in Canada (see photo).

The Senator travels all over the country meeting with Vietnamese community groups.^[1] But not just any community groups. He only meets with groups that represent the interests of the Saigon ruling class.^[2] Such trips are featured in the "Events" section of his web site (Ngo, n.d.).^[192] and in some of his Senate speeches.

The Senator makes no secret of the fact that he is loyal to his roots as a member of the ruling class in Saigon. His senate position provides an effective platform for supporting their political activities and he uses it to influence all levels of government in Canada, all over Canada, in the interests of his political faction.^[3]

In 2014 the Senator took part in a media interview that fairly accurately reflects the divide in the Vietnamese community between the Senator's pro-Saigon faction and the rest. This illustrates that the divide does indeed exist and that the Senator stands on one side of it. He reflects his side's self-interested politics in the way he frames the Vietnam war. (Meyer, 2014).^{[82] [4]}

Who does the Senator represent?

He openly represents a small political faction within the Vietnamese community who has a specific political interest in elevating themselves and in marginalizing the rest of the Vietnamese community.

How small? We made an "informed guess" in The ARVN in Canada: An obsession with the Vietnam war and Canadian politicians ... much less than 1% of the Vietnamese community in Canada.

Officials of the Saigon military regime did not need to know anything about their constituents. They were put into power and supported by foreign powers. Similarly, appointed Senators in Canada do not have to be responsible to their constituents.

The Senator demonstrates a limited knowledge of the Vietnamese community outside of his circle of the Saigon ruling elite. He has somehow got it in his head that Canada's boat people refugee program was all about rescuing the Saigon elite from their plight in 1975. It's either that or he is intentionally trying to deceive Canadians about the Vietnamese.

He even wrote his "knowledge" up in a parliamentary bill that got passed in parliament. (Statutes of Canada, 2015).^[155] The purpose of the bill is to re-frame the Vietnam war in the interests of the Saigon elite and to have Canada formally recognize the regime as a legitimate nation. The Senator somehow convinced Canadians that a formal recognition of the Saigon regime as a legitimate nation is something that would be received by the former boat people as an homage to their journey to Canada.^[5]

Senator Ngo is also proud of the fact that he has never returned to Vietnam and never been in touch with relatives back there. He has turned down invitations from both Vietnam and Canadian governments to visit. He prefers to maintain his image of Vietnam as a communist hellhole, which he has never seen, since he left in 1975 before it really got going (Meyer, 2014). He runs internships in the summers for young Vietnamese Canadians so that they can write about this hellhole.

The Senator's website devotes a considerable amount of space to the parliamentary bill and a "History of the Boat People". The history is rather disorganized and inaccurate, omitting key information that would reveal that the boat people crisis and Canada's response to it was not at all related to the fall of Saigon or the Vietnam War.^[6]

We have mentioned that the Senator is actively pursuing the Saigon ruling elite's interests in Canada. Some places that you can track this, besides his own web site, are:

A chronology of political events is maintained in Are Canadian politicians doing what they appear to be doing?

Some of the letters that he writes to community organizations and other levels of government to press his uninformed views on the community are included in: Canada suppresses cultural expression. This is a sampling, not a full chronology.

The parliamentary web site has search tools that allow you to find anything that was said by any particular member.

The Senator maintains the "events" part of his web site. (Ngo, Events n.d.).^[192]