Lawyers urge Ottawa to fast-track families in Hong Kong who helped Snowden
MONTREAL — Canadian lawyers representing three families who sheltered whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong urged Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen on Wednesday to expedite their applications as refugees to this country.
“Our clients are specifically targeted by Hong Kong’s immigration authorities, who are actively trying to get our clients out of its territory and back to their home countries where they will be apprehended, tortured, or killed,” lawyer Marc-Andre Seguin told a Montreal news conference.
The lawyers want Ottawa to accept the families on an exceptional basis while their applications are processed.
Snowden fled to Hong Kong to avoid prosecution over the leak of classified material about U.S. government surveillance programs.