A hearing to determine whether the Sooke Harbour House’s former manager can stay in Canada is up in the air after authorities discovered that Timothy Durkin applied for Canadian citizenship last January.
Durkin appeared at an immigration hearing virtually on Dec. 7 and 8 based on claims that he was inadmissible to Canada due to his alleged involvement in a multi-million-dollar Ponzi scheme in the United States.
This comes after a recent B.C. Supreme Court judgment in September, which awarded more than $4 million to Frederique and Sinclair Philip, former owners of the Sooke Harbour House. In the ruling, the judge called it a “six-year odyssey of lies, excuses, threats, intimidation and bullying” by Durkin and his partner Rodger Gregory.
Durkin’s lawyer revealed on Tuesday that the Sooke man had applied for citizenship 11 months ago, according to a spokesperson with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (IRB).
Upon discovering the new information by Canadian Border Service Agent officers and Immigration and Refugee Board’s decision-maker Trent Cook, the hearing was adjourned.
A spokesperson with IRB pointed out that admissibility hearings are only for foreign nationals or permanent residents, not Canadians with citizenship. If it’s determined that Durkin has been approved as a citizen, any decision would effectively become null.
Cook is set will release a written decision on the next steps for the admissibility hearing within the next week or two.
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