Canada set to throw out ex-KGB spy

VANCOUVER - Canada is set to throw out a former KGB agent who is hiding in a church here since June to avoid deportation.

Mikhail Lennikov, 49, who is holed up in First Lutheran Church here, lost his last chance to stay in Canada when the apex court rejected his plea in September.

Last month, top Indo-Canadian parliamentarian Ujjal Dosanjh had appealed to the government to let the Russian stay on in Canada.

The former KGB agent, who came to Canada 13 years ago with his family to study at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, was ordered to be deported because of his past association with the KGB.

However, his wife Irina and son Dimitri have been allowed to stay on humanitarian grounds.

Canada’s new Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Thursday that his government will show no leniency in the case of the former spy who has exhausted all his appeals.

The minister said: “The removal of inadmissible individuals is key to maintaining the integrity of the immigration programme and to ensuring fairness of those who come to this country lawfully.”

Meanwhile, another Canadian MP made a fresh plea to the government to grant residence permit to the former KGB spy on “humanitarian grounds”.

Vancouver-area MP Peter Julian said the Russian and his family were living a miserable life inside the church where they sleep in a tiny room.

His case is similar to that of Indian Laibar Singh who sought refuge in a Vancouver gurdwara to avoid deportation in 2006. Police didn’t enter the Sikh shrine for fear of hurting their religious sentiments.

Finally, Singh was deported to India last year.