Lennikov hides in church to avoid deportation, call for action to remove all KGB from Canada

For a man who spent a career with the KGB and enforcing its rules, Mikhail Lennikov has a lot of trouble following them from a Canadian judge: Get out of Canada – no spies allowed! If your knowledge of the KGB only comes from movies, it was the Soviet Union’s secret police – out living Nazi’s Gestapo police by 60 years and killed and enslaved more innocent people than Hitler by an order of magnitude!

The facts speak for themselves:

  • Lennikov, a former leader of the Communist Youth League, was recruited into the KGB in 1982 after leaving university and worked first as a translator than as a spy for Japanese businesses.
  • He left the KGB in 1988, and left Russia in 1995 for Japan.
  • He came to Canada in 1997 on a student visa without disclosing his KGB past (otherwise he would have never been admitted).
  • Applying for permanent residency in the Fall of 2008, Lennikov’s background as a KGB officer was disclosed and their application was denied under Section 34 (1) of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, deemed a security risk and his family ordered to be deported:

    34. (1) A permanent resident or a foreign national is inadmissible on security grounds for
    (a) engaging in an act of espionage or an act of subversion against a democratic government, institution or process as they are understood in Canada;
    (b) engaging in or instigating the subversion by force of any government;
    (c) engaging in terrorism;
    (d) being a danger to the security of Canada;
    (e) engaging in acts of violence that would or might endanger the lives or safety of persons in Canada; or
    (f) being a member of an organization that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts referred to in paragraph (a), (b) or (c).

  • March 2009 -  Lennikov’s wife and son were granted permanent residency in March on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
  • June 1 2009 – A judge denied the appeal of Lennikov, disputing the man’s claim his life would be at risk in Russia as he would be considered a traitor.
  • June 3 2009 – Lennikov was ordered to board a flight for Vladivostok, Russia, but has taken sanctuary with his family at First Lutheran Church by Rev. Richard Hergesheimer.
  • Since then there hasn’t been many updates, besides some opportune political photo-ops.

    It’s all about image

23 members of Parliament co-signed a letter Tuesday to Minister of Citizenship and Immigration Jason Kenney and Van Loan, urging them to halt the deportation order.

Liberal, Bloc Quebecois and New Democrat MPs spoke about the urgency of stopping the deportation order.

Conservative Selkirk-Interlake MP James Bezan recently introduced Bill M-356 to try and uphold the integrity of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act:

“Canada should not be a safe haven for terrorists or former members of any communist state’s secret police forces,” Bezan stated. “People that have been members of organizations such as the KGB, Gestapo, Al Qaeda, or the Taliban do not meet the requirements for entry to Canada under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.  If they have entered Canada, then they should be deported,” said Bezan.

Who’s upholding the law?

With all the media backlash, few have come out to support our government’s decision to uphold the law. The Ukrainian community in Canada have been out responding to articles written about in the media – mainly, the Ukrainian Canadian Congress and the incredible effort by chairman of Ukrainian Canadian Civil Liberties Association Lubomyr Luciuk who has appeared in various news outlets.

Can he outlast Immigration?

Will hiding out in a sanctuary work? It’s been done before:

University of Windsor professor Randy Lippert, who wrote Sanctuary, Sovereignty and Sacrifice, said seeking sanctuary has proved to be a successful tactic for people with immigration troubles. Since 1983, Prof. Lippert said, the success rate for migrants who sought refuge in a place of worship was 73 per cent when he conducted a study in 2003.

However, in recent years, the length of time sanctuary seekers spent waiting grew from an average of 19 days to more than 650 days, Prof. Lippert said. And the success rates have been dropping in recent years.

Dangerous Precedent

If Lennikov beats the law and stays in Canada – what will that mean for the other KGB killers who already enjoy life here?

They called themselves Chekists — the sword and shield of the Soviet Union. They were proud of what they were. Some served as concentration camp guards. Others were executioners. Many were just clerks or cooks or those ordinary guys who mop up the mess after the torturers are done.

Over the years they had different names — Cheka, OGPU, NKVD, SMERSH and, most notoriously, KGB. Yet their job description didn’t change. They were killers. They murdered whomever their masters wanted dead. Their victims numbered in the many millions.

…

An intrepid journalist broke this story in a national Canadian newspaper in April 2005. Yet after that original exposé, all followup stories were spiked. Even more intriguing is that the RCMP’s war crimes unit, asked to investigate allegations about Communist collaborators in Canada, responded with the rather limp finding that they had insufficient evidence upon which to act.

That reply took more than three years to draft. Apparently when a man admits he was in the NKVD and brags about the people he did in and provides his memoirs in English in a book available in libraries across the land, the Mounties don’t define that as proof of any wrongdoing. Maybe they’re waiting for Hollywood to turn the manuscript into a movie.

Only time will tell

8 thoughts on “Lennikov hides in church to avoid deportation, call for action to remove all KGB from Canada”

  1. The difference in reactions betw. Nazis and SSSR is — it all boils down to

    not ok to wear a swastika t-shirt

    perfectly ok to wear a hammer-and-sickle t-shirt

  2. Yes, it’s very interesting how these opposition MPs have gone all starry-eyed and compassionate in support of someone who got into Canada by subterfuge, and working so hard to over-rule (and undermine) our country’s justice system.

    It’s also interesting that none of these compassionate MPs ever came forward in defence of elderly Ukrainian Canadians who have been falsely accused of war crimes and lying to get into the country, who have in fact been exonerated by the courts, yet still face the threat of deportation.

    By all appearances, their compassion seems to be highly selective, not to mention self-serving.

  3. The decision of the Canadian Federal Court should mean something, and the KGB agent should be deported!

    If Canadians don’t enforce and respect their own laws, who will?

    KGB (now FSB ) was a dangerous tool of a dictatorial regime. It was not a Country Club full of friendly people.

    Under the Soviets, for many, it was a prestige to be a part of this Group of Selected people with special trainings and privileges.

    Repression, fear and force were the tactics applied by the KGB agents.

    It is ridiculous that this man is even in a church. Religion was considered back then a “poison” for the masses. Mr. Lennikov should go home!

    The law should be enforced! Canada should not be played like that by a deceitful agent of a Foreign State.

    For eight years, the Canadian taxpayers carried Mr. Lennikov on their shoulders. The court procedures, the interviews, the investigations etc.

    Apply the Canadian Law! This is the right thing to do, and the only thing to do!

  4. You will not believe what is going on: Mr. Lennikov is calling on a Benefit Concert….?!

    See the announcement on his blog ( yes, he has a blog ):

    “Vancouver based “ABBA Cadabra,” a tribute band to the music and magic of ABBA, is giving a benefit concert on Saturday, June 27 2009 at 8:00 p.m. in St. Andrew-Wesley United Church (1022 Nelson St., Vancouver, BC). Proceeds go to the Lennikov Family Support Fund.”

    Now, the Canadians will have to support him..?!

    So, here is this man deal – break the Canadian Law; use the Canadian taxpayers for years; undermined the Federal Courts, and have a Benefit Concert to collect some money….

    What is next? May be, his own reality show on prime time?!

    Someone, please, make sense of this!!!

    The KGB agent should be deported immediately!

  5. Thanks for the news, I will post an update soon. It’s becoming very disappointing that the media is defending this man while the general public is not.

  6. A nincompoop emailed me the other day.

    I’d share his name but I don’t have it. He’s a yellow belly.

    In the interests of gender equality I hasten to add that ‘he’ might be a ‘she.’ But since I’m dealing with a lily-livered Lilliputian I’ll pick on my own brand and assume it’s a ‘he.’ A nitwit in either case.

    His note arrived only hours after my opinion-editorial was published. Being read is gratifying so I won’t complain too much. There’s also the diversion of getting a rise out of a goof, probably a public service as I suspect this dolt leads an otherwise pedestrian existence.

    What got his sphincter moving was a piece I wrote about a KGB veteran who is now a fugitive holed up in some religious sect’s basement. Squatting and claiming “sanctuary” he is apparently unaware of the fact that planting a Porta Potty confers no asylum rights, not even in British Columbia.

    Before this ex-apparatchik went subterranean he had a hearing at the Immigration and Refugee Board. It ruled, properly, that he was inadmissible to Canada because of his previous career with the Soviet secret police. Nevertheless, this non-citizen has “rights.” So a Federal Court judge carefully reviewed the case. The deportation order was upheld. That’s when the ex-Commie apparently found Christ.

    Just as I don’t want a Nazi next door so too I don’t want the KGB in Canada. Others do. They insist this comrade never harmed anyone, is a family man, has been in-country for years and broke no laws. Not so. He had no right to come here and thus has no right to remain. And now he’s in contempt of court. He even readied his underground lair before the judge’s decision was made, evidence of an intent to ignore our laws if things didn’t go his way. That this fellow still garnishes sympathy confirms that there are a folks out there who “learned” about the KGB by watching Boris and Natasha’s antics on Bullwinkle cartoons. They don’t want to be reminded that the KGB murdered millions more than the Nazis ever did. Instead they want special treatment for this KGB man. I suppose to be fair they’d have to admit that there were some nice Nazis too. Personally I prefer the rule of law: no exceptions and no excuses.

    Now I expect flak whenever I write. So it’s OK when someone sends a letter to an editor to disagree with me. Indeed I have friends who chortle whenever I take one on the chops. A clever counterpunch sometimes even provokes a guffaw on my part. I can laugh because I know that before anything appears in print, in this newspaper or any other, whether I write it or you do, an editor (perhaps several) has verified that it is neither bogus nor defamatory and that whoever has written it is who they say they are.

    Now that’s critical. Editors aren’t generally censors. They’re gatekeepers. Not everything gets past them and that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Their role is not to restrict “free speech” but to ensure that anyone who has something to say also demonstrates the courage of their convictions. A person does that by attaching their real name to whatever they want to share in the public arena.

    Many of us have encountered the loudmouth who corners you at a party and then goes on and on about some pet peeve. Try to escape by asking why he doesn’t share his views by publishing them, sweetening your pitch by adding that doing so would edify the otherwise apparently ignorant masses, and you’ll be told that the mainstream media is manipulated by sinister forces that prevent “the truth” from “getting out there.” Actually what happens is that good editors everywhere work hard to ensure that bigots, boors and bastards rarely get published. Which is exactly what they should do.

    Alas we now live in a world where those who believe in conspiratorial cabals have access to innumerable “chat rooms” and “blog sites” where they can blow their loads while hiding behind infantile pseudonyms. Obviously underemployed, these troglodytes expend their waking hours vomiting up whatever they want to, without fear of repercussion. Quick to invoke their right to “freedom of speech” these wannabe writers nevertheless refuse to name themselves. I recently encountered their caveman culture when I asked some lout calling himself “the Canadian” (even though he seems to reside in Los Angeles) who he is. Rather than answer he scuttled away, just like one of those saw bugs that cut and run when you turn over a rock.

    I loathe those who would restrict free speech. But anyone who “shares their thoughts” on the Internet should be required to identify who they are before they have their say. Hate speech oozes from those who hide in contrast to free speech which arises from those not afraid to tell you what they think because they are not afraid to affirm who they are. That’s why I’ve signed this editorial. Think, say, or write what you will about what I have to say but at least you know I’m no chicken.

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