A former KGB agent who has been in sanctuary in a Vancouver church for three months wants Ottawa to release files held on him by CSIS, the Canada Border Services Agency and the RCMP.
Mikhail Lennikov was ordered deported to Russia in June after the government declared him a national security risk.
But he says the government has no evidence he’s a threat and is stalling on handing over his files because it knows the deportation order is unwarranted.
Lennikov has asked for the files through the Privacy Act, and only the RCMP has complied — in part, NDP MP Peter Julian said yesterday.
“We have heard back in the last couple of weeks from the RCMP. Of the 59 pages that are in Mr. Lennikov’s file, two-thirds have been withheld,” Julian said.
The information amounts to a car accident report and a complaint Lennikov filed in 2007.
“My office and I are filing, under the Privacy Act, an appeal with the privacy commissioner to … push the government to make these records available,” said Julian.
“I suspect they have nothing, and that is why they are withholding the documents.”
Lennikov said it has been hard on his family to have him in sanctuary and to lose a second income.
“(My son) had been coming almost every day and sometimes staying for a couple of days,” Lennikov said. “(My wife) comes a couple of times a week and normally she stays on Saturday and Sunday.”
