U.S. objections likely behind delay in granting asylum to Snowden-helping refugees, lawyer charges – By Tom Blackwell (National Post) / March 26 2019
‘There’s pressure on (Canadian officials) and they’re trying to avoid telling the public that … Pressure from the Five Eyes, that’s what it all points to’
Did the Trump administration intervene to try to stymie the refugee claimants who helped Edward Snowden evade American justice, and now want Canada to give them asylum?
One of their lawyers said Tuesday he’s convinced that U.S. objections have been a factor in the drawn-out application process, which saw one of the Snowden-helping refugees and her daughter admitted to Canada Monday. Five others continue to languish in Hong Kong.
After claims for refugee status for the three families that took Snowden into their homes were filed in 2016, the Canadian consulate in Hong Kong said the cases would be handled urgently, according to Rob Tibbo, one of the group’s lawyers.
But that tune “suddenly” changed in the summer of 2017, with the mission now saying the cases would be dealt with on the usual first-come, first-served basis, he said.
“Absolutely it’s a factor,” charged Tibbo about interference from Washington and the “Five Eyes” alliance of intelligence agencies. “There’s pressure on (Canadian officials) and they’re trying to avoid telling the public that … Pressure from the Five Eyes, that’s what it all points to.”
Government sources, however, said Tuesday they are unaware of any such lobbying by the Americans, and that “geopolitical” issues like that would not be considered in an immigration case, anyway.
“No such representations have been made to the minister or her office and I am unaware of any communications via diplomatic channels,” said a Global Affairs Canada official who asked not to be named.
The press office for the U.S. embassy in Ottawa did not respond to a request for comment.
*Refugee Vanessa Rodel — who arrived from Hong Kong Monday — her lawyers and human-rights groups all urged the federal government Tuesday to quickly admit the five others, who include the half siblings of Rodel’s daughter Keana.
Vanessa Rodel with lawyer Robert Tibbo at Toronto Pearson International Airport on March 25, 2019. Maria de la Guardia
She had been in a relationship several years ago with the girl’s father, Supun Kellapatha. His current partner and their two children have already been rejected for asylum by Hong Kong and lost their appeal of that decision. The third Snowden host, Ajith Pushpa Kumara, has also been rejected by Hong Kong, which denies over 99 per cent of asylum claims.
At the Canadian consulate, the remaining cases are being handled by different visa officers and have yet to be decided.
“When we struggled in Hong Kong, had ups and downs, facing lots of difficulty, we always stuck together,” Rodel told a news conference. “We feel like we are family … I don’t want them to be left behind.”
Tibbo, a Montrealer then practicing in Hong Kong, was retained to help Snowden in 2013 when the National Security Agency contractor arrived in the city with stolen documents outlining various mass-surveillance programs carried out by the U.S., as well as Canada and its other Five Eyes allies.
Tibbo asked the three families — all clients of his — to shelter Snowden for two weeks as he became essentially the world’s most-wanted fugitive. The American surfaced later and flew to Russia, where he remains today, yet to face espionage and other charges in the U.S. The refugees’ role stayed secret until 2016.
The Canadian lawyer said the families did nothing illegal — there was no arrest warrant against Snowden at the time, and Hong Kong authorities let him leave the city freely.
Marc-Andre Seguin, a Montreal lawyer spearheading the Canadian asylum applications, said there is no “smoking gun” proving American involvement, but “one can only wonder.”
“I certainly hope Canada is not managing these files of destitute asylum seekers from the Third World like they were a national security threat,” he said. “These are just families who fled danger in their home countries and have been stuck in limbo for over a decade in Hong Kong.”
Mathieu Genest, a spokesman for Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen, said issues like lobbying from another country would never be a factor in an immigration case.
Private-sponsorship applications such as those involving the Hong Kong families — who are being supported by a group called For the Refugees — are almost always dealt with in chronological order with others, he said.
The minister or officials in a mission can expedite handling of specific files, but that happens very rarely, and usually in government-sponsored refugee cases, said Genest.
