11 minutes agoRussian spy child can maintain Canadian citizenship
Periskopi(6 years ago)
(6 years ago)The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the son of a Russian spy couple can maintain his Canadian citizenship. Alexander Vavilov was born in Canada and equipped with a Canadian passport with the conviction that his parents were Canadian citizens. But in fact, his parents had used false identities for [...]
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that the son of a Russian spy couple can maintain his Canadian citizenship.
Alexander Vavilov was born in Canada and equipped with a Canadian passport with the conviction that his parents were Canadian citizens.
But in fact, his parents had used false identities to operate under “deep-bulse” for the Russian government.
The favourable decision ends Mr. Vavilov to maintain citizenship and return to Canada.
Alexander Vavilov was born under the name Alexander Foley in Toronto on 3 June 1994 by parents Tracey Lee Ann Foley and Donald Howard Heathfield.
His older brother Timothy was also born in Toronto four years ago.
However, their parents' real names were actually Elena Vavilova and Andrey Bezrukov, and they were engaged in sending sensitive information from Canada to Russia.
When Vavilov was only two years old, the family moved to France and then to the United States, where the first doubts about them began.
His parents were arrested by the FBI in 2010. Vavilov was only 16 years old then and until then, he and his brother were unaware of their true identity.
“was traumatic,” Vavilov told CBC Night in 2018, after winning the case's appeal. I had no idea what was happening”
The Change of Spys
Bezrukov and Vavilova were arrested along with eight other individuals, including Russian spy Anna Chapman, who has become the most famous spy ever captured by American authorities.
They pleaded guilty and returned to Russia as a result of a spy exchange operation. They were exchanged with four Russian spies who were imprisoned by Moscow on charges of spying on the West.
One was Sergei Scripal, who had been imprisoned for 13 years in Russia after discovering the identity of Russian secret agents in Europe, writes the BBC.
In 2018, Mr. Scribal and his daughter were found poisoned with nervous agency on a park bench in the United Kingdom, which officials believe was a state revenge for treason against Russia. They survived poisoning, but a citizen of the United Kingdom died.
Just before the parents' expulsion, Alexander Vavilov and his older brother left on a preplanned trip to Europe, including a tourist visa visit to Russia.
When Alexander Vavilov tried to renew his Canadian passport at this country's embassy in Moscow, it was denied after he was told that his Canadian citizenship had been revoted.
The argument given to the world was that children born from “a diplomatic officer or consul or another representative or employee of a foreign government in Canada” are exempt from citizenship, even if they were born on Canadian soil.
A federal court denied Alexander Vavilov's request for judicial examination, but an appeals court returned his citizenship.
The Minister of Citizenhood and Migration appealed against this decision and, in turn, was sent to the Supreme Court of Canada.
The court said the law banning the citizenship of children of foreign representatives was not implemented unless their parents were granted diplomatic privileges and immunity.
The court reasoned that since their parents ' true identity as Russian spies was secret, the brothers never enjoyed diplomatic status on the part of the Canadian government.
