What Canadian immigration knew about the Chinese crime kingpin who’s fighting to keep his residency

The Canadian Press

February 27, 2013

VANCOUVER – Police had alleged that the man fighting to keep his Canadian residency status ordered the murders of three of his Asian gang rivals before coming to Canada, a former Canadian visa officer told an Immigration and Refugee Board hearing.

Jean-Paul Delisle told Lai Tong Sang’s hearing Wednesday that several red flag warnings of the man’s organized crime lifestyle came up when he reviewed a file back in the mid-1990s — but the man was still allowed into the country not longer after.

Lai dropped his immigration request in Hong Kong, but made another application in Los Angeles two years later and he and his family were accepted. Seventeen years later the Canada Border Services Agency is asking the board to find them inadmissible.

Delisle testified he would have clearly informed other immigration officials they were dealing with a “major triad head” from China if he had been notified the man made another request to enter Canada.

“Reliable police sources believed that Mr. Lai had personally ordered the murder of his rival triad head in Macau,” said Delisle, explaining what information he would have relayed to Canadian visa officers who processed the application.

“And while this murder attempt was failed, Mr. Lai was also believed … to have personally ordered the murder of two other triad members that were successful.”

Delisle was a visa official for 25 years and based in Hong Kong when he was initially tasked with reviewing the man’s visa application.

He learned from a special unit of the Macau police that Lai was known to be the leader of a major Chinese crime syndicate, the Shui Fung, or Water Room, gang.

The triad was believed to be engaged in activity such as gambling, prostitution, assault and intimidation.

“He would be passing instructions on to his lieutenants, who would be directing the foot soldiers,” he told the hearing. “He would be the one directing all this activity.”

When Lai’s application arrived on his desk, Delisle said he was facing a backlog that gave him time to check into the man’s background with Macau and Hong Kong police, which he did after noticing several red flags.

“These indicators were that he had a low level of education, had been involved in the construction industry and had high net worth,” Delisle said.

But he wouldn’t have made a final decision on whether to grant Lai the visa until interviewing him. Before that happened the man withdrew his application, Delisle explained.

Lai was accepted into Canada through the Los Angeles consulate and moved to Vancouver with his family on Oct. 20, 1996.

The hearing is expected to wrap up on Thursday.