The Canada Border Services Agency is refusing to honour U.S. President Donald Trump’s executive order to pardon those involved in the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot in Washington D.C.
An Indiana man detained in a Surrey, B.C. immigration detention centre may soon be free to return following U.S. President Trump’s executive order to pardon all those involved in storming the Capitol building in Washington in 2021.
Antony Vo, 32, fled to Canada to make an asylum claim to avoid sentencing after being convicted of four non-violent misdemeanours that occurred during the Jan. 6, 2021 riot.
“It has been a long fight for my client but I am happy he has been pardoned in the USA so he will likely drop his claim and return to the USA,” Vo’s U.S. lawyer Damilo Ausni told True North.
The CBSA attempted to intervene in the matter by sending a letter to the Immigration Refugee Board last week prior to Vo’s hearing to state that he was “not on the list of individuals pardoned by the US President.”
Along with specific individuals pardoned by name in the executive order, Trump also granted “a full, complete and unconditional pardon to all other individuals convicted of offenses related to events that occurred at or near the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021.”
Vo’s legal representation in Canada, Robert Tibbo, told the National Post that his client’s counsel in the U.S. all indicate that “yes, 100%, he’s been pardoned.”
According to Tibbo, the agency wants “an Immigration Department adjudicator to rule him inadmissible so that they don’t have to screen his refugee claim” to begin the process of removing him from Canada.
Regardless of what happens to Vo, his presence in the country has further spurred on the mounting U.S.-Canada border security concerns, raising questions about how someone wanted as a fugitive in the U.S. could so easily gain entry.
“I don’t like any part of what this man did,” Toronto lawyer Ari Goldkind told True North. “You can just run here and exhaust every appeal, every route and every admissibility criteria as opposed to a simple notion: You got sentenced in the states, you have to serve your sentence in the states.”
Vo entered Canada last spring to skirt his nine-month prison sentence and subsequently filed a refugee claim which cited his concerns of “torture and inhumane treatment by the USA government” that was accepted for assessment by the CBSA in December.
The CBSA is mandated to “assess the admissibility of persons coming to Canada and pursue investigations against persons in Canada who may be inadmissible.”
True North contacted the CBSA to inquire why Vo was not flagged as a wanted man in the U.S. at the border during the time of his crossing.
“In this case, we can tell you that the CBSA does not have a record of Antony Vo entering Canada at Regway, SK or any other official port of entry,” CBSA spokesperson Karine Martel told True North.
“The CBSA is also mandated, if information comes to light that an individual who entered Canada may be inadmissible, to launch an investigation and initiate appropriate enforcement action. Enforcement action may include the arrest and detention of an inadmissible individual, as authorized under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA).”
Martel went on to say: “We can confirm that Mr. Vo, a fugitive from U.S. justice, was arrested without incident in Whistler, BC on January 6, 2025 on warrant under the IRPA.”
Vo was arrested while on a snowboarding trip to Whistler, B.C. on Jan. 6 and has been staying in an immigration holding centre in Surrey, deemed as a flight risk by the adjudicator in his case.
“I think that there was an argument that the participants in the Jan. 6 events were persecuted with semi-political trials and extraordinarily excessive sentences,” Montreal lawyer Julius Grey told True North. “But once a pardon is issued there is no more refugee claim.”
However, Vo must also face a separate charge for failing to report to jail in Indiana and a subsequent arrest warrant after he was apprehended in Canada.
Additionally, the phrasing of Trump’s executive order states that anyone “at or near” the Capitol be pardoned but its filing at least four years since the riots could preclude Vo’s latest charge from being covered.
Tibbo referenced a separate Jan. 6 case where clemency covered “consequential connected offences,” which is his rationale for advising Vo not to abandon his refugee claim until it can be confirmed.
“It’s an insult to all the Jan. 6 people who did actually serve time in jail and I’m someone who thinks people have been well over-incarcerated or over-sented for Jan. 6.,” said Goldkind.
Vo’s final option would then be to re-apply for refugee status on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.
Still, Goldkind takes issue with Canada being a country that leaves the door open for people “simply wanting to avoid their sentence.”
“Our country continues to seem to be a dumping ground. Now, this guy’s not a terrorist, he’s probably not a bad guy but why do we have no border? Why is there no ability to get rid of anybody?” he asked.
