For Immediate Release
(21 December 2009) - Ottawa
Canada's Ukrainian community is calling on federal Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Jason Kenney, and the Minister of Public Safety, Peter Van Loan, to reject calls for "a Christmas miracle" that would allow a self-confessed veteran of the KGB, Mikhail Lennikov, to stay in Canada.
UCCLA was responding to Vancouver New Democrat MP Ujjal Dosanjh, who at a Monday news conference suggested Christmas is a time for “giving and forgiveness, the season of generosity.” Responding, the Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association's Dr. Lubomyr Luciuk said: "Why ignore Mr. Lennikov’s admitted membership in one of the most notorious secret police forces the world has ever known? What mercy were the KGB's victims ever shown? It's remarkable how ignorant some NDP-ers are of history."
Both the Immigration and Refugee Board as well as a judge of the Federal Court of Canada confirmed that it is against the law for former members of the KGB to immigrate to Canada and then ordered Mr. Lennikov's removal. He has since defied those decisions, claiming a (non-existent) "right of sanctuary". Mr. Lennikov even told a reporter from The Vancouver Sun that he will spend Christmas enjoying a yuletide dinner with family and friends in the Lutheran Church where he now sits, evading Canadian authorities.
“Did Gulag prisoners have it that good?” wondered Dr. Luciuk. “Mr. Lennikov was ordered deported by a federal court judge and yet, inexplicably, he remains here. Why isn't the Canada Border Services Agency doing its job? They have a judge's order and they know where he is. While we agree that Canada should give haven to real refugees we certainly shouldn't to those who, indirectly or directly, were responsible for the enslavement and mass murder of millions of innocents between 1917-1991. What Canada's Ukrainians and many others want for Christmas, frankly, is a Canada free of the KBG."