‘He’s very likely, almost certainly, to have been pardoned,’ Antony Vo’s lawyer says
From inside a Canadian immigration detention facility in British Columbia, Antony Vo, an Indiana man and ardent Donald Trump supporter, was able to watch as the newly inaugurated U.S. president announced and then signed an executive order to pardon over 1,500 Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot convicts.
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And while the 32-year-old who was convicted of four non-violent misdemeanours for his actions in Washington that day is still awaiting his confirmation of executive clemency, he and his lawyer are confident “it’s just a matter of time.”
The Bloomington man fled the U.S. for Canada last spring, avoiding a nine-month prison sentence. He has since filed a refugee claim in Canada, citing fears of “torture and inhumane treatment by the USA government” in a basis for claim accepted by the Canada Border Services Agency in December.
Nova Scotia-based human rights and immigration lawyer Robert Tibbo, one of the Canadian attorneys assisting Vo along with Saskatchewan-based Oluwadamilola Asuni, is in contact with U.S. authorities and is waiting for the new administration to issue the certificate of pardon.
In the meantime, Vo is a resident of the B.C. Immigration Holding Centre in Surrey, where he’s been held since being arrested during a snowboarding trip to Whistler on Jan. 6.
CBSA told the National Post at the time he was considered “a fugitive from U.S. justice” and therefore “inadmissible” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act.
Tiibbo said he “can’t see any rational basis” for Vo’s arrest, which he noted came on the fourth anniversary of the events in which he was convicted of partaking.
“CBSA made the decision, despite Antony, and through his lawyer, communicating and making it very clear that (he) is accessible anytime,” Tibbo told the National Post. “His whereabouts were always known to CBSA, immigration, and the Canadian government.”
In subsequent reviews of his detention, the adjudicator has deemed Vo a flight risk, which Tibbo said is contrary to evidence that his client has complied with all Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada requirements and been a law-abiding irregular entrant to the country since arriving in Canada “through an improper channel” in June 2024.
Tibbo said it’s possible that “errors in law were made” in deeming him a flight risk, but he declined to speak more on that as Vo will continue seeking asylum in the event Trump’s absolution isn’t forthcoming.
The National Post has contacted IRCC seeking confirmation of its adjudications and their reasonings.
Continuing the asylum process would begin with applications in federal court seeking his release from detention which, if successful, in Tibbo’s view means Vo “would have been detained unlawfully the last few weeks.”
The open refugee claim, which a CBSA spokesperson has said the agency is not at liberty to discuss due to privacy concerns, is also the reason Vo remains in Canada. Tibbo said Vo will pursue it if he’s not granted clemency.
Per the United Nations’s 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Vo can’t be lawfully removed from the country, having had his basis for claim accepted.
Should Vo not be pardoned and see his refugee declaration refused, Tibbo said his client will be subject to a pre-removal risk assessment to determine if he faces persecution upon returning to the U.S. before being removed. Even then, he can choose to re-apply on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
But he’s confident, his client, “having kept the high profile In the public domain, that he’s very likely, almost certainly, to have been pardoned.”
While hundreds of individuals convicted of violent Jan. 6 offences and serving time in the U.S. are already walking free, Tibbo speculates that Vo’s slight delay could be related to an additional charge for failing to report to his prison sentence in Indiana, as levied by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) last week. Without a full exoneration, Tibbo said his client could face up to an additional 12 months in prison if convicted again.
“When you pardon somebody, you’re going to want to pardon them for everything, so that may be a bit of an administrative hiccup,” Tibbo said, noting U.S. officials have not communicated formally on the matter.
If Vo gets the green light to return to the U.S., CBSA may release him and let him reclaim property in Canada to make his own way out, “or they may say ‘We’re more comfortable to have control over your body, and we’ll escort you to a border crossing,’” Tibbo said, figuring it would most likely be the U.S. border point after immigration at the Vancouver International Airport.
One way or another, and despite being “not happy that he’s detained,” Vo has nothing but good things to say about his time in Canada.
“Even where he is now, the Canadians have been kind to him and caring and I think that’s a very positive thing about our country, culture and the Canadian people.”
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