The federal government has again branded a North Korean defector a war criminal not entitled to Canada's protection, despite a lengthy government report stating that Song Dae Ri should stay in Canada because he would be killed for treason if sent home.
Robert Genier, a senior analyst with Citizenship and Immigration Canada, endorsed a much-criticized decision from the Immigration and Refugee Board. That ruling found Mr. Ri guilty of war crimes merely for being a trade official in North Korea's secretive, repressive regime. No allegations of specific crimes against humanity have been made against him, and Canada's War Crimes Unit found no evidence of wrongdoing.
In August of 2001, Mr. Ri defected to Canada from his post as a trade official in North Korea's Beijing embassy. His asylum claim was rejected in September of 2003, while his six-year-old son's was accepted.
But before Canada can send Mr. Ri back to North Korea, government officials must assess the risk to his life. The Toronto immigration official assigned to perform the review concluded on Feb. 9 in a 16-page report stating that Mr. Ri should be allowed to stay in Canada because he would be executed for treason if returned.
"I am satisfied [Mr. Ri] would be at risk of cruel and unusual punishment if he were to return to North Korea," ruled C. Lemonde, a pre-removal risk assessment officer with the Canadian Border Services Agency.
However, Mr. Genier, a more senior immigration official in Ottawa, reviewed the findings and concluded last week that Mr. Ri was not entitled to Canada's protection "because of the nature and severity of the acts committed" by him.
The decision came as a surprise to Mr. Ri, creating more anxiety for the 37-year-old former diplomat, who is living in seclusion with his son in Toronto.
That the IRB accepted his six-year-old son as a refugee has only added confusion to a case that has become so controversial that human-rights groups in South Korea are lobbying Canada to help Mr. Ri. (His wife was executed for treason in North Korea in April of 2002 after her parents lured her home.)
"This government recommendation is very Kafkaesque," said Robert Moorhouse, who represents Mr. Ri. "You have the left hand of the government not knowing what the right hand is doing. People in two different offices of the same ministry can't get their story straight. Mr. Ri is not a war criminal."
Mr. Genier's decision is an "interim" one, a spokeswoman for the Immigration Department said Thursday. She stressed that the decision is correct in law. The final decision is up to the office of Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan, which must say whether Mr. Ri's removal order should be stayed.
That review is not his only hope.
Immigration Minister Judy Sgro is also considering his application to stay on humanitarian grounds. If successful, it would allow him to apply to become a permanent resident of Canada.
"The department will do the balancing process," said Tsering Nanglu, an Immigration Department spokeswoman. "Ottawa will decide finally whether the risk to Mr. Ri's life if he is deported outweighs any risk he may pose to the Canadian public."
A source in the Immigration Department indicated that Mr. Ri would likely get a favourable ruling and be permitted to stay.
Still, critics suggest the fact that he was twice labelled a war criminal shows the refugee-determination system is flawed. There has never been any specific evidence of wrongdoing by Mr. Ri. But IRB member Bonnie Milliner found him complicit in crimes against humanity because he willingly joined the government and did not leave at the first available opportunity.
Mr. Ri testified at his hearing that he traded commodities in Beijing and was not a prison guard or concentration camp worker. He said he became fearful for his life after a colleague overheard him criticizing the brutal excesses of Kim Jong-Il's regime and the atrocities committed in camps for political prisoners. He said he left Beijing using a false South Korean passport.
"You can't send someone back to a place where they will be tortured," said Lorne Waldman, a Toronto immigration lawyer. "It would be unthinkable for the minister to deport this man, just because he was a member of the North Korean government."
In Seoul, several high-profile North Korean defectors including Hwang Jang Yeop, who worked as a diplomat and was the architect of North Korea's official juche, or self-reliance philosophy, are lobbying Canada to accept Mr. Ri.
"Someone obviously made a mistake in this case. Everyone is concerned there is a dangerous precedent being set, especially for a country like Canada that accepts a lot of refugees," said Marc Simkins of the Association of North Korean defectors.
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