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The wheels are in motion to see an Indiana man in Canadian custody pardoned for his part in the Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riots according to his lawyer, but not as far as the Canada Border Services Agency is concerned.
Antony Vo, a 32-year-old Indiana man who fled to Canada to avoid a nine-month prison sentence last June is still being housed at an immigration holding centre in Surrey, B.C. after being arrested in Whistler on Jan. 6, but Canadian lawyer Robert Tibbo said his client’s counsel in the U.S. all indicate that “yes, 100 per cent, he’s been pardoned.”
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“It falls under part B of the president’s proclamation and even though his name is not there, he’s pardoned because it says expressly any person who was charged and or convicted of any criminal offence at or near the Capitol,” he explained to the National Post on Saturday.
Vo, who filed a refugee claim after arriving in Canada, is scheduled for an admissibility hearing with Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board this Wednesday.
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The IRB previously told the National Post it has no public information to share on the matter because “only private records exist.”
However, ahead of that hearing the CBSA sent a letter to the IRB last week stating “Vo was not on the list of individuals pardoned by the US President.”
“This has been verified with US government officials,” reads the letter supplied by Tibbo, who calls it spectacularly false.
Meanwhile, the same day that letter was dated, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit made a motion to move his case back to the federal district court to have the convictions for four non-violent misdemeanours, and thereby his sentence, quashed, per WishTV in Indiana.
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Complicating the matter, however, is a new charge for failing to report for his prison sentence in Indiana last year and a subsequent arrest warrant, both issued since his arrest in Canada.
The “at or near” the Capitol wording in Trump’s executive order could preclude the latest charge from being covered by the absolution as it wasn’t filed until more than four years after the “Stop the Steal” rally turned into riots in Washington, D.C.
Based on another Jan. 6 case, Tibbo is hopeful the clemency will cover “consequential connected offences,” but it’s why he’s advising Vo to hold tight and not abandon his refugee claim until it can be confirmed.
As for why CBSA is arguing Vo has not been exonerated, Tibbo reasons the agency wants “an immigration department adjudicator to rule him inadmissible so that they don’t have to screen his refugee claim” and can begin the process of removing him from Canada.
As “a fugitive from U.S. justice,” CBSA has already deemed Vo inadmissible, which is what led to his arrest under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
“The CBSA has a legal obligation to remove all foreign nationals who are inadmissible to Canada under the IRPA and who have a removal order in force,” an agency spokesperson told the National Post.
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