From AP, via China Daily:
The Canadian official who approved Lai’s removal order failed to properly consider Lai’s claim that he would be tortured, a Federal Court judge ruled…
The slow pace of Lai’s deportation case — which has gone on for seven years — has become a thorn in Chinese-Canadian relations even though Ottawa has supported Beijing’s efforts to have him returned…
Lai is accused of running a multibillion-dollar operation that bribed officials and police to avoid taxes and duties on goods ranging from oil to cigarettes that were smuggled into China’s Fujian province in the 1990s.
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See Time Magazine’s cover story Smuggler’s Blues,
which says “To get an audience with China’s most wanted man, you drive past Mr. Kim’s Kimchee Emporium, Chan’s No. 1 Chinese Language Tax Accountancy and the One-Stop XXX Adult Shop. Eventually, you pull up at the Crystal Palace”a deceptively named apartment complex in Burnaby, a dismal strip-mall suburb of Vancouver full of Asian immigrants. The elevator takes you to the 17th floor. You disembark and a cheap plywood door opens. There stands a man with slumped shoulders, his once merry cheeks deflated. Behind him, dishes are stacked high in a crowded kitchenette, the greasy smells of a Chinese breakfast congealing in the stale air. “Hello,” he says softly, searching for more English ords before shrugging apologetically and repeating his one English word again. “Hello, hello, hello.”…
