Jan. 6 offender pardoned by Trump but stuck in Canadian detention

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Having received a full pardon from U.S. President Donald Trump for his Jan. 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol riot convictions, Indiana man Antony Vo no longer has a basis to claim asylum in Canada and is ready to go home.

But according to one of his Canadian lawyers, officials on this side of the border are refusing to release him from a holding centre in B.C. so he can return to the U.S. a free man with no criminal record related to the Washington insurrection.

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“There’s nothing we can do to stop this,” Rob Tibbo said of a Wednesday hearing with Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board to decide on his admissibility to the country, both now and in the future.

“I’m just not happy that they’re keeping him locked up.”

Vo to undergo admissibility hearing, despite withdrawing asylum claim

As previously reported by the National Post, justice officials in the U.S. filed paperwork late last week to clear the 32-year-old of four non-violent misdemeanours, as dictated under Trump’s executive order to absolve more than 1,500 people convicted of offences at or near the Capitol building that day.

The Bloomington man was facing nine months behind bars but absconded to Canada in June 2024 where he later sought to obtain refugee status.

A few weeks after going public with his story, Vo was arrested while snowboarding in B.C. when the Canada Border Services Agency acted on a warrant under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that would deem him inadmissible as a fugitive of U.S. justice.

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This put a hold on Vo’s refugee claim and began the process to determine his admissibility, during which time he has remained at the B.C. Immigration Holding Centre in Surrey.

Before inauguration day, however, justice officials in the states charged him with failing to report for his sentence and issued a warrant for his arrest. On Monday, Tibbo confirmed that both had been quashed, meaning his client could return without fear of arrest or detainment.

After repeated attempts Monday afternoon, Tibbo said he was able to get the Canada Border Services Agency to let Vo officially withdraw his refugee claim, which should have eliminated the need for an admissibility hearing scheduled for Wednesday.

Instead, Tibbo said the Immigration and Refugee Board informed him in writing on Monday night that Vo’s hearing would proceed, regardless of his pardon status.

“In cases where the Minister has applied to the Immigration Division to withdraw the referral, and the Immigration Division accepts the application to withdraw the referral, the admissibility proceedings are halted,” the official wrote.

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“The Minister has not applied to withdraw the referral; the Minister intends to pursue the allegation irrespective of a pardon in the U.S.”

IRB won’t comment on the matter, citing privacy considerations, but directed the National Post to websites detailing the processes for detention review and admissibility hearings.

The CBSA may detain a foreign national “if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that the person is admissible — that is, not allowed to enter or remain in Canada — for security reasons or for violating human or international rights, serious criminality, criminality or organised criminality.”

As they have done in Vo’s case, the agency can also request that a foreign national appear before an IRB’s Immigration Division tribunal where an adjudicator will decide on their admissibility under the IRPA.

Tibbo said the hearing is the agency’s way of “tying up loose ends.”

“They’re looking at Antony’s conduct, whether he’s convicted or not, and whether he falls under the IRPA definition of what amounts to a national security risk.”

It’s not the first time Tibbo said Canadian officials have stood in the way of Vo’s release.

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A letter sent from CBSA to IRB last week specifically stated that “Vo was not on the list of individuals pardoned by the US President” as “verified with US government officials.”

It’s now clear he was.

Tibbo reasons Canadian officials are taking a hard line because they want to condemn Vo as a convict for “petty reasons” because he spoke out when he came to Canada, perhaps drawing the ire of border and immigration officials.

“They just wanted to deem him inadmissible, that he committed sedition against the U.S. government,” Tibbo said.

Should they do so, Tibbo said Vo, who would like to return to Canada at some point, may seek special relief from the minister of immigration, but noted such applications can prove difficult to get approved.

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