Fifteen years ago, an anonymous “poison pen” letter was sent to Canada’s consulate in Hong Kong claiming a man who attended a medical exam required for immigration to Canada was an imposter, pretending to be the husband of an investor-class immigrant because her real husband was in prison.
By the time the Canadian government got around to doing anything about the letter, the woman had moved to Prince Edward Island with the couple’s son, divorced her husband who remained in China, and built a successful business and new life with community ties and church friends.
It made for a strange tale that is now settled after a criminal case and an immigration hearing.
On Nov. 9, 2015, Su Luo was arrested as she collected mail at a community mailbox near her home across the Hillsborough River Bridge from Charlottetown. Two officers with Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) wearing tactical gear pulled in front of her parked car, handcuffed her, and took her to an RCMP detachment.
She was shocked and confused, she said.
Luo was born and raised in China, where she lived for 35 years. She had a master’s degree in public administration and started a media company before applying to move to Canada in 2007 as part of Prince Edward Island’s investor-class immigration program.
The province’s program required her to pay $200,000 up front, and to set up a business on the island. She listed herself as the principal applicant and her husband and their 10-year-old son as dependents.
She arrived in Canada in 2009 with her son. Her husband never came; they later divorced, and she remarried, court heard.
In P.E.I., Luo started a Chinese-English newspaper. She hired several locals to help with her business, court heard, and she was later awarded as one of ten island women in leadership to mark International Women’s Day.
What wasn’t known, was that seven months after she arrived in Canada, a “poison pen” letter arrived at the Canadian Consulate in Hong Kong, alleging that the person who attended the medical examination as Luo’s husband was a fake, pretending to be him, the letter said, because her real husband was in jail.
The timeline from the start of the investigation to the date of the hearing — 14 years, two months, and 11 days — is exceedingly lengthy
Court records say that her husband was arrested and charged in November 2007 for copyright infringement. He was later sentenced to four years in custody.
In March 2008, Luo, her son, and a person who identified as her husband had medical exams to complete their immigration process to move to Canada. Only Luo and her son eventually came to Canada.
If the letter was concerning, it wasn’t addressed quickly.
Although received in August 2009, it wasn’t translated into English until August 2015, eventually sparking an investigation by CBSA which led to Luo’s arrest at the mailbox.
She was charged criminally with misrepresentation and prosecuted in the Supreme Court of Prince Edward Island. After she was arrested, she spoke with CBSA officers in a video-recorded interview. At her trial in 2019, that interview was thrown out by a judge because it was deemed not to have been given voluntarily and breached her right to legal counsel. The criminal charges were then halted.
Things still moved slowly.
Last year, the minister of public safety took her case to the Immigration and Refugee Board, alleging she was not admissible in Canada for failing to disclose her husband’s arrest and conviction in China, and for an imposter presenting himself for the medical exam.
Luo’s lawyer argued it took almost 15 years after getting the poison pen letter to bring the case to the IRB, calling that an abuse of process. During that time, the IRB heard, Luo had become established in Canada.
The government argued the letter only started an investigation and it took time to gather evidence of her then-husband’s court case, and then COVID-19 caused further delay.
IRB decision-maker Julia Huys said Luo’s case dragged on for too long without good reason.
“I find that the delay in Ms. Luo’s case is inordinate. The timeline from the start of the investigation to the date of the hearing — 14 years, two months, and 11 days — is exceedingly lengthy. The matter is not complex and there appears to be years of inaction with respect to her file,” Huys said in her written reasons, issued in August.
“In the time the Minister has been aware of the possible misrepresentation, Ms. Luo has invested heavily in her life in Canada, including building a successful business. Canada has become her home, and she has become a part of Canadian society.
“The public has an interest in ensuring that a process that is established to enforce Canada’s immigration laws operates fairly and is untainted by abuse of process.”
Misrepresentation in Luo’s case was not proven.
Luo is relieved to have it all behind her, said Lee Cohen, her Halifax-based immigration lawyer.
“Su Luo’s case was unusual. CBSA went after her twice, in two separate litigation processes, and in both cases were resoundingly defeated,” Cohen said.
“Su is doing well. Very relieved to have this behind her and successfully concluded. There is no appeal. Su looks forward to living productively in Canada without fear that CBSA is going to once again ‘knock on her door’ and scoop her out of her home.”
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