Pardoned Jan. 6 convict ordered out of Canada, banned for 12 months

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After more than half a year in Canada, the last three-plus weeks spent detained by immigration officials, pardoned Jan. 6 non-violent offender Antony Vo has returned home to the United States.

The 32-year-old Indiana man, who escaped to Canada last June to skirt a nine-month prison sentence for his part in the 2021 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol building, had an immigration tribunal hearing on Wednesday which his lawyer said “took a very interesting turn” but ultimately ended with a “nice resolution.”

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The ruling: removal from Canada and an order not to return for 12 months.

“It could have been far worse where they say ‘we’re going to go through an admissibility proceeding’ and adjudicate him on national security grounds, where he would be inadmissible for life,” the Nova Scotia-based human rights lawyer Robert Tibbo told the National Post Wednesday night.

He said his client and counsel for Canada Border Services Agency, on behalf of the minister of immigration, came to an agreement in which Vo “conceded to having not crossed a designated border point and hadn’t reported to a CBSA officer at the time he crossed.”

As previously reported by the National Post, Tibbo said Vo entered the country “through an improper channel” in June 2024. In late December, after publicly declaring he was seeking asylum in Canada fearing persecution in the U.S., he revealed to Pique News in Whistler, B.C., that he’d entered Canada via Saskatchewan.

He then travelled to Edmonton, initiating his refugee claim, and set off for a Whistler snowboarding trip at Christmas time. It was there, following a handful of media interviews, that he was arrested on a CBSA warrant issued under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. The arrest happened on Jan. 6, the fourth anniversary of the events in Washington, D.C.

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At the time, CBSA said it had no record of Vo entering the country at the Regway, Sask., border crossing “or any other official port of entry.” As a “fugitive from U.S. justice” he could be inadmissible under the Act, and the agency is required to “remove all foreign nationals” deemed as such.

While his case was sent to Immigration Refugee Board’s immigration division, he was sent to the B.C. Immigration Holding Centre in Surrey where he’s been since. Two weeks into his stay, U.S. President Donald Trump was inaugurated, and one of his first executive orders was full pardons and clemency for more than 1,500 individuals with Jan. 6 convictions.

While Vo, like hundreds of others, was not named specifically in the Jan. 20 missive, it took his lawyers on both sides of the border a few days to confirm his absolution under the president’s order.

They also had to ensure he wouldn’t face prosecution for a pre-Trump administration charge of failing to report to prison filed after his arrest in Canada and confirmed as quashed earlier this week.

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While all this was happening, CBSA continued to detain Vo, labelling him a flight risk, and at one point last week wrote that he was “not on the list of individuals pardoned by the US President” and cited verification from “US government officials.”

Tibbo called it “spectacularly false,” and court documents filed by the U.S. Department of Justice late last week are clear about Vo’s exoneration.

Even though he withdrew his refugee claim and is safe to go home, he remained detained until this week because Canadian officials were required under section 34 of the IRPA to determine his admissibility to the country, now and in the future.

With the hearing concluded and a removal order granted under a different section for the Act, sorted out the logistics of getting his personal effects to Surrey, after which CBSA escorted him out of the country at a border crossing of his choosing.

Tibbo, who has “a lot of positives to say about the Canadian immigration system,” said the agency has “been very accommodating” to Vo.

As for his client’s feelings upon leaving Canada, Tibbo remarked in his experience in such matters, “nobody’s ever 100 per cent satisfied with it.”

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“They arrested him, they detained him, they took away his liberties, so that’s something that stays with you for the rest of your life,” he said.

“But he’s happy to go back and see his family. He definitely wants to come back to Canada, he’s had a very good experience here.”

The IRB has previously stated it will not comment, saying it can’t “provide information on cases that are not public.”

In an email to the National Post outlining the CBSA’s mandate regarding the admissibility of people entering Canada, the agency said it was not able to provide specific information on the case at this time due to the Privacy Act.

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