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CTV News
27-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
Judge sides with man facing possible deportation to Italy over alleged organized crime ties in Ontario
A Canada Border Services Agency uniform is seen at the CBSA Lansdowne port of entry in Lansdowne, Ont., on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby A hearing to determine whether a man arrested in an OPP organized crime probe should be sent back to Italy will not proceed after a federal court judge ruled that the reasons for the decision were 'unreasonable.' In his written findings released last month, Justice John Norris set aside a decision made back in 2023 by a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety, referring 62-year-old Giorgio Campagna for an admissibility hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. According to court documents, Campagna, who has been a permanent resident of Canada since the age 5 but never obtained citizenship, was one of 28 people arrested back in 2019 in connection with Project Hobart, an OPP probe that investigators previously said targeted 'a lucrative online and traditional gaming enterprise involving members of known organized crime groups,' including the Hells Angels. At the time, police said the project had specifically targeted four known or prospective members of the Hells Angels, including Robert Barletta, Eugenio 'Gino' Reda, Raffaele Simonelli, and Craig McIlquham, who was killed last month in a deadly shooting outside a Burlington restaurant. An illegal gaming house operating in a cafe in Mississauga, located at 680 Silver Creek Blvd., had been part of the Project Hobart investigation and seven gaming machines were seized during a search of the cafe back in December 2019. According to an agreed statement of facts referenced in the court documents, between March and October 2019, Campagna was responsible for collecting cash from those machines, and on some occasions, counting proceeds from the machines with others. The facts also state that investigators believed he collected about 20 per cent of the proceeds for himself. Police initially charged Campagna with three counts of bookmaking and one count of commission of an offence for a criminal organization. The court documents indicated that Campagna subsequently pleaded guilty in 2021 to the summary charge of knowingly permitting a place to be used for the purpose of a common gaming house. The other charges previously filed by the Crown were withdrawn. Campagna received a conditional discharge and was placed on probation for one year, a period he completed without incident in March 2022, Norris wrote in his findings. Less than a year after he completed his probation, the court documents stated that Campagna was notified by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that a report had been prepared under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that stated there were 'reasonable grounds to believe that he is inadmissible' on the basis of 'organized criminality,' specifically for engaging in an illegal gaming enterprise. According to the court documents, Campagna subsequently hired legal counsel who provided 'comprehensive submissions and supporting evidence' as to why 'an order for his removal from Canada should not be sought.' The submissions explained that Campagna has lived in Canada for nearly his entire life and cares for his elderly mother, who has been diagnosed with dementia. They noted that his entire immediate family resides in Canada, including his common law partner of 40 years, his brother and sister, his two sons, and his three grandchildren. It added that he is currently being treated for serious medical conditions, including diabetes, and has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke. Campagna has no friends or family in Italy, according to the submissions, and cannot speak or read the language. The submissions go on to note that Campagna was found guilty of a 'relatively minor offence' and is 'deeply remorseful for his involvement in the activities that led to the criminal charges.' Despite the reasons provided, a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety referred the matter for an admissibility hearing. 'The seriousness of the allegations against him and the interests of the Canadian public far outweigh the potential difficulties which may arise should Mr. Campagna be removed from Canada,' the delegate wrote in 2023. 'Guilt by association' But Norris said that he believes the delegate's decision was 'unreasonable in two key respects,' including the 'assessment of the applicant's criminality' and 'the assessment of the applicant's personal circumstances.' 'The delegate unreasonably elevated the applicant's role in the organization of which he is alleged to be a member in determining that, in all the circumstances, a referral for an admissibility hearing was warranted,' the judge wrote. He noted that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) decision makers 'went well beyond anything set out expressly or impliedly in the applicant's guilty plea or the agreed statement of facts.' 'While the CBSA decision makers are not precluded from doing so, to be reasonable, any such findings must be supported by transparent, intelligible, and justified reasons grounded in the information before the decision maker,' Norris wrote. 'Instead, the reasoning process appears to be nothing but guilt by association, where the seriousness of the applicant's conduct is determined with reference to any and all of the harms caused by illegal gaming and organized crime, and without any meaningful consideration of the applicant's actual involvement.' Norris added that the delegate's decision was 'flawed in two respects' when it came to apprehending Campagna's 'personal circumstances.' 'The delegate states that there is nothing before him to indicate that the applicant would be unable to communicate in Italy. However, the applicant said exactly this in his submissions and in his supporting evidence. The issue of the applicant's language abilities has a direct bearing on the hardship he would face if removed to Italy,' Norris wrote. He added that the impact to Campagna's health was also not properly addressed, calling the 'reasonableness of the decision into question.' 'The Minister's delegate concluded that the applicant had not established that he would be unable to receive treatment, care and support for his medical conditions if he were to be removed to Italy,' Norris wrote. 'In so concluding, the delegate failed to engage with a critical point advanced by the applicant: that disrupting the continuity of his care in Canada would materially affect the quality of care he would receive for several serious medical conditions.' Norris ruled that the Campagna's application for judicial review will be allowed and the decision of the Minister's delegate 'will be set aside' so the matter can be dealt with by a different decision maker.
CTV News
27-05-2025
- General
- CTV News
‘Unreasonable': Judge sides with man facing possible deportation to Italy over alleged organized crime ties in Ontario
A Canada Border Services Agency uniform is seen at the CBSA Lansdowne port of entry in Lansdowne, Ont., on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby A hearing to determine whether a man arrested in an OPP organized crime probe should be sent back to Italy will not proceed after a federal court judge ruled that the reasons for the decision were 'unreasonable.' In his written findings released last month, Justice John Norris set aside a decision made back in 2023 by a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety, referring 62-year-old Giorgio Campagna for an admissibility hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. According to court documents, Campagna, who has been a permanent resident of Canada since the age 5 but never obtained citizenship, was one of 28 people arrested back in 2019 in connection with Project Hobart, an OPP probe that investigators previously said targeted 'a lucrative online and traditional gaming enterprise involving members of known organized crime groups,' including the Hells Angels. At the time, police said the project had specifically targeted four known or prospective members of the Hells Angels, including Robert Barletta, Eugenio 'Gino' Reda, Raffaele Simonelli, and Craig McIlquham, who was killed last month in a deadly shooting outside a Burlington restaurant. An illegal gaming house operating in a cafe in Mississauga, located at 680 Silver Creek Blvd., had been part of the Project Hobart investigation and seven gaming machines were seized during a search of the cafe back in December 2019. According to an agreed statement of facts referenced in the court documents, between March and October 2019, Campagna was responsible for collecting cash from those machines, and on some occasions, counting proceeds from the machines with others. The facts also state that investigators believed he collected about 20 per cent of the proceeds for himself. Police initially charged Campagna with three counts of bookmaking and one count of commission of an offence for a criminal organization. The court documents indicated that Campagna subsequently pleaded guilty in 2021 to the summary charge of knowingly permitting a place to be used for the purpose of a common gaming house. The other charges previously filed by the Crown were withdrawn. Campagna received a conditional discharge and was placed on probation for one year, a period he completed without incident in March 2022, Norris wrote in his findings. Less than a year after he completed his probation, the court documents stated that Campagna was notified by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that a report had been prepared under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that stated there were 'reasonable grounds to believe that he is inadmissible' on the basis of 'organized criminality,' specifically for engaging in an illegal gaming enterprise. According to the court documents, Campagna subsequently hired legal counsel who provided 'comprehensive submissions and supporting evidence' as to why 'an order for his removal from Canada should not be sought.' The submissions explained that Campagna has lived in Canada for nearly his entire life and cares for his elderly mother, who has been diagnosed with dementia. They noted that his entire immediate family resides in Canada, including his common law partner of 40 years, his brother and sister, his two sons, and his three grandchildren. It added that he is currently being treated for serious medical conditions, including diabetes, and has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke. Campagna has no friends or family in Italy, according to the submissions, and cannot speak or read the language. The submissions go on to note that Campagna was found guilty of a 'relatively minor offence' and is 'deeply remorseful for his involvement in the activities that led to the criminal charges.' Despite the reasons provided, a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety referred the matter for an admissibility hearing. 'The seriousness of the allegations against him and the interests of the Canadian public far outweigh the potential difficulties which may arise should Mr. Campagna be removed from Canada,' the delegate wrote in 2023. 'Guilt by association' But Norris said that he believes the delegate's decision was 'unreasonable in two key respects,' including the 'assessment of the applicant's criminality' and 'the assessment of the applicant's personal circumstances.' 'The delegate unreasonably elevated the applicant's role in the organization of which he is alleged to be a member in determining that, in all the circumstances, a referral for an admissibility hearing was warranted,' the judge wrote. He noted that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) decision makers 'went well beyond anything set out expressly or impliedly in the applicant's guilty plea or the agreed statement of facts.' 'While the CBSA decision makers are not precluded from doing so, to be reasonable, any such findings must be supported by transparent, intelligible, and justified reasons grounded in the information before the decision maker,' Norris wrote. 'Instead, the reasoning process appears to be nothing but guilt by association, where the seriousness of the applicant's conduct is determined with reference to any and all of the harms caused by illegal gaming and organized crime, and without any meaningful consideration of the applicant's actual involvement.' Norris added that the delegate's decision was 'flawed in two respects' when it came to apprehending Campagna's 'personal circumstances.' 'The delegate states that there is nothing before him to indicate that the applicant would be unable to communicate in Italy. However, the applicant said exactly this in his submissions and in his supporting evidence. The issue of the applicant's language abilities has a direct bearing on the hardship he would face if removed to Italy,' Norris wrote. He added that the impact to Campagna's health was also not properly addressed, calling the 'reasonableness of the decision into question.' 'The Minister's delegate concluded that the applicant had not established that he would be unable to receive treatment, care and support for his medical conditions if he were to be removed to Italy,' Norris wrote. 'In so concluding, the delegate failed to engage with a critical point advanced by the applicant: that disrupting the continuity of his care in Canada would materially affect the quality of care he would receive for several serious medical conditions.' Norris ruled that the Campagna's application for judicial review will be allowed and the decision of the Minister's delegate 'will be set aside' so the matter can be dealt with by a different decision maker.
CTV News
26-05-2025
- CTV News
B.C. man sentenced on drug, firearm charges triggered by silencers found at airport
A patch is seen on the shoulder of a Canada Border Services Agency officer's uniform in Tsawwassen, B.C., Dec. 16, 2022. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck VANCOUVER — A Nanaimo, B.C., man has been sentenced to five years in prison and a lifetime firearm ban after an investigation triggered by the discovery of illegal silencers at Vancouver International Airport. The Canada Border Services Agency says officers intercepted three firearm suppressors at the airport in 2022, then in May 2023, CBSA and RCMP members executed search warrants at a residence and two vehicles in Nanaimo. The CBSA says officers seized illicit drugs and multiple firearms including two untraceable ghost guns, a prohibited shotgun, a rifle with a suppressor and two non-restricted rifles. It says they also found drugs including 335 grams of cocaine and 119 grams of methamphetamine. The agency says it charged Cody Edward Ranger with multiple firearm and drug possession charges last May. It says Ranger pleaded guilty to one count of possession of drugs for the purpose of trafficking and two counts of unauthorized possession of a loaded firearm in Nanaimo Provincial Court last Wednesday.
CBC
10-04-2025
- CBC
Brazilian says he was deported after blowing whistle on Winnipegger who illegally hired foreign workers
A Brazilian man says he was misled into working illegally in Winnipeg based on the promise he would eventually get a work permit. Ighor Santos, 27, says he was ordered to leave the country after blowing the whistle on the man who recruited him and other foreign nationals for a construction job in the city's Leila North neighbourhood. Santos said he came to Canada in March 2023 and worked at the site for nearly five months. He and his family first reached out to the authorities later that year. On May 31, 2024, he went to the border crossing at Emerson, Man., to apply for a valid work permit through another company. Santos said he provided Canada Border Services Agency officials with information indicating he'd been coaxed into working illegally, but after an interview that went on for several hours, a border agent told him he had to leave the country because he'd broken the law. "I was, of course, sad because I tried to [do] the right thing … to avoid this to happen to me, because none of this was my intention," Santos said in an interview from São Paulo. He was unsatisfied, he said, "because at the end of the day, the wrong people, they're still there." Gurwinder Singh Ahluwalia, 43, of Winnipeg pleaded guilty to one count of unauthorized employment of foreign nationals in contravention of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act as part of a plea deal that avoided additional counts being brought up against him last week. He admitted during a provincial court hearing on April 2 to hiring the foreign nationals to work at the Templeton Heights development in the Leila North area, which he managed as general contractor for a construction company during a two-year period starting in 2022. Court heard at least 14 foreign nationals were illegally employed on the site. Ahluwalia, who had been living in Canada since moving from India in 2010 and became a Canadian citizen in 2019, was sentenced to 20 months of house arrest and ordered to pay a $50,000 fine, as recommended in the plea deal. The maximum prison sentence for the offence is two years. 'Come today, because we need people' The Canada Border Services Agency said in a Tuesday news release that the investigation started in August 2023, after the agency received information about the employment and mistreatment of unauthorized workers. Search warrants for Ahluwalia's home, truck, the construction site and an immigration consulting firm were granted in May 2024. Last week, court heard that a Brazilian national had come forward to Canada Border Services agents with evidence Ahluwalia had advised him to come to Canada under a visitor visa and work illegally, after he'd asked about opportunities in the country. Santos said he was the worker who contacted border services. He said he was in his last year of school in Ireland when he contacted Ahluwalia, after a relative told him Ahluwalia was looking for workers. Santos said he liked the idea of coming to Winnipeg, a place where he had family and that he had visited years before to study English. "I told him … could you just wait, like, for me to do my finals?" Santos said. "He was like, 'No, we need people right now.… If you [have a visitor visa], just come today, because we need people.'" Santos said he came to Canada with the expectation he would not work until he got a work permit through a labour market impact assessment. However, when Santos arrived with a friend who also wanted to work in Canada, Ahluwalia made it clear that he wanted them to start working immediately. Santos said Ahluwalia told him he'd only have to wait two weeks for his permit. He said every time he complained, Ahluwalia made up excuses as to why he didn't have permits yet. "I wasn't really talking to [the other workers] about this, you know, because from my point, I thought everyone had their own papers," he said. He only figured out others were in the same situation "when every week I saw something worse and worse happening," he said, referring to how the workers were treated. 'I left everything behind' Crown prosecutor Matthew Sinclair said during last week's hearing that many of the people working on the site were unaware of Canadian laws that would protect them, which made them vulnerable to exploitation. Workers endured poor conditions, got low wages or missed payments, and lacked Workplace Safety and Health protections granted to those working legally, the prosecutor said. Santos said Ahluwalia had offered $32 an hour while he was still in Ireland, but the promised wages kept dropping until he got his first payment, when he received $15 an hour for his work. Ahluwalia bumped his wages up to $18 an hour after he complained, Santos said. He was paid in cash at first, but later on got e-transfers. The Brazilian man said the payments were regularly late and the foreign workers — from Mexico and Brazil — were often asked to work overtime and were subject to verbal abuse. Santos said he worked nine to 10 hours a day, mostly lifting heavy objects. He said he didn't get protective equipment like gloves until he asked for them. Money for the gloves was taken from his pay, Santos said. "I knew I was illegal. I was not feeling comfortable, but again, I left everything behind," he said. "I left my college, I left my life and everything. And I was counting on the promised money." Canada Border Services said in a statement Wednesday it can't comment on the specifics of Santos's removal, because the details of individual cases are protected by the Privacy Act. Anyone seeking entry to Canada "must present to the CBSA and may be subject to a more in-depth exam," the agency said. Their admissibility "is decided on a case-by-case basis and based on the information made available at the time of entry," it said. Hiring workers was 'only option,' court told Crown prosecutor Sinclair told court workers at the site delayed medical treatments for job injuries out of fear of missing work, and some of the people working legitimately were also being underpaid. Marty Minuk, Ahluwalia's lawyer, said the construction company overseeing the Templeton Heights project had run out of people to work on the project, and Ahluwalia was at risk of defaulting on a loan arranged to build the project because no work was happening at the site. "All of my family invested in the project," Ahluwalia said in court. "About 50 families would have gone bankrupt.… This was the only option." The workers "enjoy all the benefits," he said. "They get paid. They get money for the lodging, and here we are." Provincial court Judge Rachel Rusen told Ahluwalia part of the plea was for him to accept responsibility and express remorse about committing a crime. "These are vulnerable people, sir," she said. "They come here without the protections, they have no recourse, they have certainly fear of reprisal for things that can go wrong." Santos said "no one enjoyed" working illegally at the site. "Winnipeg was in my heart because that was where I learned English, where I meet friends," he said. "I just went back there to try to … live the same memories [through] people that I thought I could trust."
