MPs Denounce Thanksgiving Dinner for Former KGB Agent

On October 16, 2012, Ted Opitz, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke Centre, and on October 18, James Bezan, MP Selkirk-Interlake rose in the House of Commons to voice their strong opposition against the actions of two members of the NDP caucus.

On October 8th of this year, MPs Peter Julian (Burnaby-New Westminster) and Don Davies (Vancouver Kingsway) hosted a Thanksgiving Dinner for a former KGB agent, Mikhail Lennikov, whose asylum claim was rejected by the Immigration and Refugee Board and his appeal rejected by a Federal Court Judge due to his espionage activities against a democratic government. Mr. Lennikov has since been claiming a right to sanctuary, being taken in Vancouver’s First Lutheran Church for the last three years.

MP Opitz’s grave concerns about Lennikov’s continued presence in Canada are shared by several of his government colleagues. Below is a text excerpt if his speech:
“Mr. Speaker, I stand in the House today to condemn the actions of two members of the opposition… [who] co-sponsored an event in support of … Mikhail Lennikov, a captain in the Soviet Union’s [KGB] secret police, an organization that suppressed millions during one of history’s darkest periods… He entered Canada illegally… [and] despite a deportation order, he continues to remain in Canada by living in a church basement proclaiming a right to sanctuary that simply does not exist in Canadian law.

“By celebrating this KGB agent, an illegal immigrant, these two members of the opposition are making a mockery of not only the suffering of millions, including members of my own family, but of the rule of law in Canada. Why will the NDP not stand up for Canada’s laws?”

MP Bezan stated in the House:

…“It must be said that anyone who was part of the former KGB assisted in one form or another with the atrocities carried out by the KGB. It doesn’t matter how basic or advanced their role was, they all worked together to fulfill the KGB`s brutal mission. How many people were wrongfully arrested or killed by the KGB as a result of Lennikov`s services?

“These two NDP MPs have insulted Vancouver’s Ukrainian community and over 1.2 million Ukrainian-Canadians across Canada… I demand these MPs apologize.”