53 Facts About Thomas Dang

Thomas Kyle Dang was born on April 7,1995 and is a Canadian politician who was elected in the 2015 Alberta general election to the Legislative Assembly of Alberta representing the electoral district of Edmonton-South West.

Thomas Dang was a member of the first Alberta NDP Government Caucus in the province's history.

Thomas Dang put forward motions related to education and most notably, changes to daylight saving time in Alberta.

On December 21,2021, Thomas Dang resigned from the NDP caucus after an RCMP search of his home.

The search was later linked to a hack on the Alberta government vaccine information website, which, according to Thomas Dang, he conducted to highlight security flaws in the site.

Ultimately, Thomas Dang pled guilty and was fined $7,200 in November 2022.

Thomas Dang is the second child of Chinese parents, who were refugees from Vietnam.

Thomas Dang has completed a University Certificate in Computing and Information Systems from Athabasca University.

Thomas Dang has previously worked as a software consultant and software developer.

Thomas Dang entered politics as a candidate for the New Democratic Party of Alberta.

Thomas Dang served as a member of the Standing Committee on the Alberta Heritage Savings Trust Fund, the Special Standing Committee on Members' Services and the Standing Committee on Resource Stewardship.

Thomas Dang previously served as a member of the Standing Committee on Private Bills.

Thomas Dang is seen as a rising star among his caucus; education minister David Eggen called Thomas Dang a strong pick as a future education minister due to his leadership and as a role model for young people.

In December 2020, Thomas Dang was named as Alberta's Best Representative of Constituents by his legislature colleagues.

Thomas Dang was a computer science student at the University of Alberta.

Thomas Dang defeated incumbent Progressive Conservative MLA Matt Jeneroux in the May 5,2015 election that saw the Alberta NDP sweep the city of Edmonton and win a majority government, the first switch of governing parties in the province since the 1971 election.

Thomas Dang serves as the Official Opposition Infrastructure Critic and Democracy and Ethics Critic.

Thomas Dang opposed a motion that granted UCP MLA Joseph Schow a $12000 raise in October 2021.

Thomas Dang called the move to increase a politicians pay "absurd" and "hypocritical" while the Government is asking front-line and public sector workers for a wage rollback.

In November 2021, Thomas Dang sent a letter to Elections Alberta requesting an independent review of the use of third-party money to purchase tickets to the United Conservative Party annual general meeting.

Thomas Dang has been critical of the UCP Government for not fully funding the proposed Red Deer Hospital.

Thomas Dang had been advocating for the school for several years and engaged with families, parent councils, and stakeholders over their clear need for a new high school.

Thomas Dang has asked questions in Question Period of both the Education Minister and Infrastructure Minister and received commitments from the Government to work on resolving the issue.

Thomas Dang has spoken out against racism in politics in the Legislature and supported Vietnamese people who came to Alberta as refugees.

Thomas Dang has criticized Jason Kenney for comparing his own emigration from Saskatchewan to refugee Canadians.

However, Thomas Dang accused the UCP government of using a debate on rodeo to run out the clock to avoid debate on his motion.

Thomas Dang was the subject of a racist parody account linking him to North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un which was followed by multiple high-ranking UCP government staffers including Matt Wolf, Premier Jason Kenney's Executive Director of Issues Management.

Thomas Dang stated that it was disappointing that while UCP MLAs were voting for his anti-racism motion, so many UCP staffers would be enjoying this racist content.

Thomas Dang put forward Motion 503 in his first session as an MLA, urging the Government to consult with school boards and youth to encourage student participation on boards.

In spring 2016, Thomas Dang tabled Bill 204, The Alberta Tourism Week Act.

In late 2016, Thomas Dang announced that he planned to table a bill to abolish Daylight Saving Time in Alberta.

Thomas Dang said he had been working on this file since it had been brought up at an NDP policy convention.

Thomas Dang has stated that he intends to lead a public consultation on the issue in advance of his bill in 2017.

On February 13,2017, Thomas Dang announced an online consultation process that would take place until the end of February.

Thomas Dang received widespread support from young families and members of the agricultural industry.

Thomas Dang tabled Bill 203, the Alberta Standard Time Act on March 14,2017.

Thomas Dang said that despite the vote he would like to continue the conversation and would support moving forward if other jurisdictions such as British Columbia and other parts of North America abolished time change as well.

Thomas Dang has been an advocate throughout the COVID-19 pandemic in Alberta for more support for small business and families.

In October 2021, Thomas Dang called on Premier Jason Kenney to make vaccinations mandatory for all United Conservative MLAs and to remove any members who were unvaccinated from his caucus.

Thomas Dang stated that it is imperative political leaders set the right example and get vaccinated.

Thomas Dang introduced a motion that was ultimately unsuccessful in requiring proof of vaccination.

On December 21,2021, Thomas Dang resigned from the Alberta NDP caucus after an RCMP search of his home.

Thomas Dang responded to the search, saying it was related to "the vulnerabilities with the COVID-19 vaccination records on the Government of Alberta website", which he had investigated and disclosed to Alberta Health.

In March 2022, Thomas Dang admitted to hacking the system, saying he had done so to highlight security vulnerabilities and pass on the information to the government.

Thomas Dang then bypassed an IP address block by using a script that connected to the Tor network, which anonymized his connection.

Thomas Dang then set out to test the vulnerability by entering Alberta premier Jason Kenney's birthdate and date of vaccination, which Dang later defended by saying the information was publicly available.

Thomas Dang's script was then able to guess a random health card number and retrieve a record belonging to an unknown individual.

In June 2022, the Alberta RCMP Cybercrime Investigative Team announced that Thomas Dang was charged with "illegally attempting to access private information contained in the Alberta Health vaccine portal" under the Alberta Health Information Act, a non-criminal charge that could result in a fine of up to $200,000.

On November 4,2022, Thomas Dang pleaded guilty to a Health Information Act charge of illegally attempting to access private information.

However, other information security professionals like Brad Haines, have said that Thomas Dang's calls for improved cybersecurity oversight should be heard and that the RCMP response will likely have a chilling effect on ethical hackers.

Thomas Dang played competitive table tennis as a junior for many years, competing across Canada and in the United States of America.

Thomas Dang was a member of the Edmonton Table Tennis Club.

Thomas Dang enjoys playing Ingress, an alternate reality game that involves physically going to different locations as part of the gameplay, with Dang stating that his earlier game-related travels to different parts of Alberta have been helpful since becoming an MLA in the province.