Court orders Toews to accept transfer of Canadian man held in U.S. prison

OTTAWA – In a highly unusual move, a federal judge has ordered Public Safety Minister Vic Toews to accept the transfer of a Canadian prisoner serving his sentence in a U.S. jail.

Federal Court Justice Luc Martineau has given Toews 45 days to approve the transfer request of Yves LeBon, a Quebec man currently serving time in a Georgia prison for cocaine possession.

LeBon was convicted in 2008 after Illinois police discovered 119 kilograms of cocaine in his car.

In March 2009, U.S. authorities approved his request for a transfer to a Canadian facility, but the following year Toews turned it down.

The Federal Court of Appeal would later order the public safety minister to reconsider the matter.

The latest ruling says Toews basically reasserted his previous reasoning to support his opinion that LeBon was likely to commit an organized crime offence — despite extensive new evidence to the contrary.