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.
