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Longtime Conservative MP for St Catharines, Rick Dykstra, continues to deny allegations that he bought alcohol for underage girls at a bar last month. This comes after pictures surfaced that show Dykstra posing with teenaged girls at the Mansion House in St. Catharines, where he’s seeking re-election.
Today, Brittany Gogo spoke to Kasidy. She didn’t want to use her last name. She just turned 17 years old and she says she was drinking at the Mansion House that night.
And she says a campaign volunteer contacted her after she tweeted about it and bribed her to take those tweets down.
Rick Dykstra is seen smiling in a photo taken at the Mansion House last month, with several people holding drinks. A 19-year old who was at the bar that night says at least one girl in that picture is underage.
17-year old Kasidy was also there, drinking at Dykstra’s booth. “Rumour was he was buying so me and my friends we drank it. At one point my friend actually said we need more and someone sent her to security to get more that was another underage girl she was only 18.”
That night she tweeted about it. “I tweeted lol Rick Dykstra just paid for our bottle service.” She says she was contacted on Twitter and offered a bribe to claim it didn’t happen. “He wanted me to take the tweets down. If anyone asked if I was underage, just to tell them no that I am of age and just to stay low about it.”
Dykstra’s campaign said no one offered any sort of bribes, and denied he knowingly bought underage girls any alcohol saying in a statement “Mr. Dykstra had no reason to believe anyone in the establishment was underage, and did not purchase drinks for any of the individuals in question, nor did he see them consume any alcohol from the bottles he purchased.”
There was a bouncer checking I.D as people went into the Mansion House that night, but we were told some people have paid off the bouncers to let them in underage.”
Including Kasidy’s friend. “She bribed the bouncer with $100 to let us in.”
Dykstra’s campaign manager Karen Moncur says he was with his campaign team and family that night.
Kasidy says Brandon Curry, the man who bribed her, was there that night. When we asked about him, we were told he was an “occasional volunteer, but is no longer affiliated with the campaign or Mr. Dykstra”
Late today Brandon Currie sent an email to our newsroom saying he was at the bar that night working as a representative for a company he no longer works for and that at no time was he acting on behalf of anyone else – that his actions were his own. He says he contacted Kasidy after he noticed she was being bullied on twitter. He says “any suggestion that I made any offer to any individual is completely false. My comments on twitter were completely taken out of context.”
We asked the Mansion House about the incident and they told us “no comment”. Kasidy says the bar contacted her on Twitter asking for the description of the bouncer that was paid off. She also said Rick Dykstra wouldn’t have known she was underage.
