A 71-year-old Esquimalt man and former high-ranking CFB Esquimalt officer has been arrested and charged with four counts of sexual assault. The offences were allegedly carried out while the man was providing acupuncture, massage therapy and traditional Chinese medicine, and investigators believe there could be more victims across the country.
Kit Wong is charged with sexual assault against four women who were allegedly assaulted between 2005 and 2006 while Wong was working out of his home business in Esquimalt, said Det. Graeme Leblanc, of Victoria Police Department’s special victims unit.
Wong is a retired navy lieutenant commander with the Royal Canadian Navy, based at CFB Esquimalt, and has been a leader of Chinese community groups in Victoria. As a result of his navy ties, many of his clients were military members, Leblanc said.
“These alleged sexual assaults left these women feeling powerless,” Leblanc said. Wong’s former position in the military left women feeling as though they could not come forward, he said. “It doesn’t matter who the suspect is. We will listen,” Leblanc said.
Investigators believe there could be more alleged victims. “Victims could include current and former members of the Canadian Armed Forces, current and former students of traditional Chinese medicine and members of the wider community,” Leblanc said.
In 2014, Wong was disciplined by the College of Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioners and Acupuncturists of B.C. for touching four female patients in a sexual manner while providing Tuina treatments, a type of massage therapy. His registration was suspended for two years and he was ordered to pay $21,881 in fines and costs. In 2011, Wong was ordered to use a chaperone during visits with female patients after allegations of sexual touching of a woman.
Wong answered the phone at his home Wednesday afternoon but would not comment about the allegations. “I don’t have the time to talk about it,” he said, and referred further questions to his lawyer.
Wong ran the Shang Wu Kung Fu and Tai Chi Club on Fisgard Street in the heart of Chinatown. He is a former president of the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association of Victoria.
Victoria Coun. Charlayne Thornton-Joe, whose roots in Victoria’s Chinese community span three generations, said she was shocked by the allegations. Wong was always respectful to her father, Jon Joe, also a past president of the Consolidated Chinese Benevolent Association, she said.
“It’s a little bit of a shock to me,” Thornton-Joe said, who recalls chatting with Wong and his wife at Chinese banquets. “I guess the police will do their investigation and you’re innocent until proven guilty.”
Marlin Wilson, a doctor of Chinese medicine in Victoria for the last 20 years, knows Wong and was surprised to learn of the allegations. “That’s a real tragedy for everybody,” Wilson said.
He said Wong was well-respected in the community. “I’d say he was thought of as totally wonderful,” Wilson said. “He had a lot of kung fu students and a lot of patients. They must have loved him or they wouldn’t have kept coming back.”
Wong retired from the navy in 2003. After his retirement, he continued to teach CFB Esquimalt employees kung fu and tai chi in a warehouse in Work Point’s transportation compound, according to a 2009 article in CFB Esquimalt’s Lookout newspaper.
A biography on his website says Wong came to Canada in 1967 from Hong Kong, settling in Montreal. He studied engineering at Sir George Williams University and graduated in 1972 with a degree in mechanical engineering. In 1980, he became a Canadian citizen and joined the navy, working as a combat systems engineer. In 1994, Wong was promoted to commanding officer of the Canadian Petrol Frigate detachment in Esquimalt.
The biography says he “devoted much of his time in community work and in promoting [traditional Chinese medicine] through seminars and lectures in hospital and colleges.”
The Canadian Forces National Investigation Service assisted Victoria police with the investigation, Leblanc said.
Anyone with information on the alleged offences is asked to contact Victoria police at 250-995-7654 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). Victims can receive support through the Victoria Sexual Assault Centre at 250-383-3232.
