Visa officer tells board Asian man allowed into Canada had links to gang crime

VANCOUVER – A former Canadian visa officer says red flag warnings of a Chinese man’s link to organized crime came up when he reviewed a file back in 1994 — but the man was still allowed into the country.

Jean-Paul Delisle told Lai Tong Sang’s immigration board hearing that he was tasked with reviewing the man’s visa application and found links to triad activity, including gambling, prostitution and loan activity.

Delisle, who was based in Hong Kong, told the Vancouver hearing that information from Macau police led him to believe Lai was the leader of a major Chinese crime syndicate, the Shui Fung, or Water Room, gang.

He told the hearing he would have interviewed Lai to make a decision on the man’s application, but before that happened the man withdrew it himself.

Lai, his wife and three children were accepted into Canada through another visa office two years later.

Seventeen years after they arrived, Canada Border Services Agency wants the board to find Lai and his family inadmissible, because of the man’s links to organized crime.