RCMP arrest Olds resident for child pornography offences
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Following an investigation that started in late May, Olds RCMP and ICE executed a search warrant at a residence in Olds on June 3 around 9:30 a.m.
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As a result, 48-year-old Charles Landon was arrested and charged with four Criminal Code offences relating to child pornography, including its transmission and distribution, its possession, its access and its publishing.
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Landon was freed on a release order with a list of conditions after a bail hearing. He is scheduled to appear before the Alberta Court of Justice in Didsbury on July 7, 2025.
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Detachment commander of the Olds RCMP, Sgt. Jamie Day, said that Mounties remains fully committed to building safer communities by working alongside the community, and through investigative and enforcement efforts.
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CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Most ICE detainees have no criminal history: AFP analysis
Korean veteran Jack Harrison, 89, in wheelchair originally from Michigan holds a sign NO ICE outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes) The number of migrants detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reached record numbers in June and a vast majority do not have criminal records, according to AFP analysis of official data. Private prison corporations, running the United States' already-huge and expanding detention system, are set to benefit from the Trump administration's unprecedented deportation drive, data shows. A record 60,254 people were held in ICE facilities last month, up from 40,500 in January before Trump took office. Of those, 71 percent have no criminal record compared to 54 percent last year, ICE data from the end of the 2024 fiscal year shows. Expanding detention capacity President Donald Trump was elected last year on a promise to lead the largest migrant deportation program in US history. His administration has been aggressively targeting the country's estimated 11 million undocumented migrants. Lawmakers also delivered a big win for the president this month by voting to give ICE its biggest budget to date, with $45 billion set to go towards constructing immigration facilities. Data from June shows the detention system is already growing: 200 facilities held ICE detainees in June compared to 107 in January. The Trump administration aims to increase the number of beds available for detainees to 100,000 by the end of the year, more than doubling the capacity available in 2024. This rapid expansion is being carried out by building new centers and repurposing existing facilities. A new migrant camp dubbed 'Alligator Alcatraz' opened on July 1 and is built on a disused airfield surrounded by alligator-filled swamps deep in the Florida Everglades. Trump has also said he would like to turn the Guantanamo Bay navy station in Cuba into a 30,000-bed facility. This has yet to happen, though. Official data shows a daily average of 22 people were held in the station's two existing detention centers in June. Various non-profits have raised concerns about the swift growth and the conditions that people are being detained in. Human Rights Watch published a report on Monday describing abusive treatment at three facilities in Florida, where migrants are reportedly sleeping on floors and women are held in cells with exposed toilets visible to men in nearby rooms. Soft-sided facilities, which are quick-to-build tent structures increasingly used by ICE, are also raising alarm bells. Highly profitable The private companies running large parts of the detention system are set to profit from the expansion. More than four out of every five detainees were held at one of the United States' 62 privately-operated facilities as of June 2025, according to AFP analysis of the ICE data. These facilities are run by a handful of firms: the GEO Group and CoreCivic, both publicly traded companies, are the biggest operators and respectively manage 25 and 17 centers, official data shows. The GEO Group – which announced a $70 million investment in December 2024 to grow its detention capabilities – has signed two new contracts with ICE since January and significantly expanded a third. The firm hopes to earn an additional $153 million annually from these new deals alone, according to company reports. A second Trump term has been good news for the private prison firms' bottom line. The GEO Group and CoreCivic's stock prices increased by 75 and 69 percent each in the days following the Republican's reelection, and both have remained at 5-year highs since. The two leading private prison firms and some of their top executives also made significant contributions to Republicans and the Trump campaign last year, according to data from nonprofit OpenSecrets. The GEO Group donated over $3.6 million to Republicans in 2024, including $1 million to a Trump PAC. The corporation also has close ties with the administration: Pam Bondi, the US Attorney General, was a GEO Group lobbyist as recently as 2019. CoreCivic donated $784,974 in 2024, mostly to Republicans. The group's president Damon Hininger also made individual contributions to the Trump campaign, as did other executives, OpenSecrets Data shows. By Laetitia Commanay in Paris with Corin Faife in New York
Toronto Sun
3 days ago
- Toronto Sun
He fled Cuba's regime and married a Quebecer. Then ICE took him
Former judge Yosniel Alginis Villalon Lopez was ready to begin a new life in Canada. Published Jul 25, 2025 • Last updated 1 hour ago • 9 minute read Yosniel Alginis Villalon Lopez with his wife Stéphanie Penta and her two children. Villalon Lopez was detained by ICE at the Canada-U.S. border while attempting to join Penta in Quebec. Handout picture It was supposed to be the start of a new life. Instead, Yosniel Alginis Villalon Lopez was put into the back of a van and taken to an ICE detention facility. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account The 34-year-old Cuban ex-judge who refused to bow to the Communist regime had just pulled up to Quebec's Lacolle border crossing. His wife, Stéphanie Penta, a Quebecer, was waiting on the other side. The newly wedded couple brought what they thought would be enough: a marriage certificate, criminal record checks, family photographs, and even joint bank statements. But Yosniel was denied entry. He is now being held at the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centre in Buffalo, New York. Not only has his future in Canada been jeopardized, he also faces deportation to Cuba. If returned, he said he risks prosecution for treason. His case, immigration experts say, is part of a growing wave of failed crossings at the Canada–U.S. land border. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Asylum seekers who arrive in the U.S. before reaching Canada are usually turned back. That's because the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) requires they seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in – in this case, the U.S. Exceptions exist, such as being married to a Canadian. But lawyers say even those pathways have become harder to use. For this story, The Gazette reviewed legal documents and interviewed Yosniel's wife, his lawyer, immigration experts, and Yosniel himself, who spoke from inside ICE detention via a monitored phone call. Defied Cuba's Communist Party It begins in Havana, Cuba. Before he was an immigration detainee, Yosniel was a judge at Havana's People's Provincial Court. He said he had originally wanted to be a lawyer but was encouraged to become a judge because, as a young person, he could better understand and represent the interests of youth in court. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Not long after his appointment, he said Communist Party of Cuba officials came calling, asking him to join. He refused. Then, in July 2021, protests erupted across Cuba. Thousands took to the streets against the regime as anger over food shortages and the response to COVID-19 spilled over. When the accused were brought before him, Yosniel said he refused to convict them. The charges didn't reflect the crimes. That didn't go unnoticed. He was accused of treason and threatened with criminal prosecution. State agents also began intimidating him, he said. He went into hiding before fleeing the country in early 2022 through South and Central America. Once at the U.S. border, he filed an asylum claim and settled in Miami, Florida. He lived there while waiting for a decision. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He also received a work permit. By day, he said he worked multiple jobs, the latest managing beer inventory. At night, he cleaned a courthouse. A romance sparked on Instagram Back in Quebec, Stéphanie, 36, was raising two daughters in Otterburn Park, aged eight and 11, from a previous decade-long marriage. In October 2024, she had just started running her own massage practice when Yosniel liked a few of her photos on Instagram. She had come up as a suggested follower as the pair shared mutual friends from Cuba. Stéphanie thought they may have known each other but couldn't remember. 'I was curious. Why was he liking my pictures?' They began chatting. Within days, they were spending hours every day messaging and video-calling. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I'd never connected like that before. It was easy,' Stéphanie said. In December, Stéphanie flew to Miami to meet Yosniel for the first time in-person. She had planned to stay with mutual friends and meet up with him. In the end, they spent every day together. She returned to Miami in January. And February. And every month after. The couple decided to have an impromptu courthouse marriage in May 2025 in Miami. 'It was a beautiful, spontaneous decision,' Stéphanie later wrote in her affidavit. 'I am not a big wedding person and neither is he, but it felt right for us to take this step to announce that this relationship is forever.' At the end of June, Stéphanie took her daughters to New York so they could meet Yosniel for the first time and spend time together as a family. Previously, the children had spoken to Yosniel on the phone. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'Yosniel had spoken about the needs of my children from the start,' Stéphanie said. 'We wanted to build a future together, but I said it was important that he meet my daughters first before we start living under one roof.' The trip, she said, was 'wonderful,' and her kids loved Yosniel. After consulting a Montreal immigration lawyer, they were told Yosniel could come to Canada, as he qualified under the family exception to the STCA. Delays, confusion, and doubt at border On July 2, the couple headed to the crossing in Lacolle, Quebec, one of Canada's busiest land borders. Stéphanie approached from the Canadian side, having left her daughters with their father, while Yosniel arrived from the U.S., carrying his crucial documents, including a marriage certificate, criminal background checks, and joint bank statements, among other papers. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Stéphanie said she approached the agents after arriving and tried to explain that her husband coming from the U.S. 'One of them told me, 'There's no point being here, wait in your car,'' she recalled. When she got to her car, her phone rang. It was Yosniel. 'They're moving me,' he said. 'I don't know what's happening.' Yosniel told her they had transferred him to a different, busier building and suggested she go home as it might take a long time. 'S eeking responses to justify his initial perception' The next day, on July 3, Yosniel was called in for his CBSA interview. He asked to speak in Spanish, his first language. A phone interpreter was provided, but he said the translation was poor and had to correct it several times. He was worried the officer wasn't fully understanding him. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. He said the interview focused on three things: his relationship with Stéphanie, his personal history and U.S. asylum claim, and whether their marriage was genuine. He showed the officer a photo of himself with Stéphanie and her daughters in New York. 'He didn't even look,' Yosniel said. 'The officer said that Stéphanie and I got married so I could immigrate to Canada,' he said. 'I tried to explain that we got married because we were in love.' They had considered having Stéphanie move to the U.S., he said, but it would have disrupted her daughters' lives and her business. When asked about their immigration legal consultation, Yosniel said it took place on June 3 — after the wedding — and showed a video call log on his phone. The officer didn't look at it, he said. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That same day, CBSA officers called Stéphanie, who was back at her home, for a phone interview. It last five minutes twenty seconds. Among other questions, she was asked about the consultation with their immigration lawyer. She said it had taken place in 'the last week of May or the first week of June.' Later, Yosniel said a supervising officer delivered the decision. She reviewed the interview notes and signed off on the conclusions. According to Yosniel, when she said the consultation with the immigration lawyer took place in May, Yosniel corrected her — it was June 3, he said. But the officer pushed back, replying that Stéphanie had said May. He tried to show the proof on his phone. The officer, he said, told him it didn't matter. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The officer told him he couldn't enter Canada for a year without a visa or special permit. He had 15 days to appeal, but the officer, Yosniel said, advised not to as it would be expensive. Then he was put in a van and handed over to U.S. authorities. Yosniel said that no officer at CBSA doubted the authenticity of his marriage certificate or any of the other documents he presented at the border. 'The officer who interviewed me was just seeking responses to justify his initial perception of me,' Yosniel later wrote in his affidavit. 'When I tried to show evidence that would address his concerns, he paid no attention to it because they were not useful for his conclusions.' 'It's not paradise here.' On the other side, Stéphanie still didn't know what had happened. But a mutual friend with Yosniel's GPS location noticed his position had changed. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'I don't want to alarm you,' the friend told her, 'but he's in the U.S.' Yosniel was eventually allowed a brief call late at night. He used it to tell Stéphanie what had happened. It was 'completely devastating.' Thankfully, she said, her daughters were with their father and didn't see her break down. Yosniel was taken to the Batavia ICE detention centre near Buffalo, a facility that has been reported on for overcrowding. He said he sleeps in a dormitory-style room with roughly 100 others. Meals are served three times a day. The air conditioning works. 'Some cry every night. Some don't speak,' he said. 'It's not paradise here.' But he added that officers have treated him decently so far. Yosniel also has time each day to make phone calls. Every call, including to Stéphanie and The Gazette, is monitored by agents. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Stéphanie started calling lawyers to begin appealing the decision. 'I contacted 70 lawyers,' she said, but only a handful responded. To file an appeal, Stéphanie needed the documents the CBSA gave Yosniel. But she said the agency wasn't responding, despite multiple attempts. So she tried something else. While on the phone with her husband, she asked if an ICE officer was nearby and whether he might scan the documents. To her surprise, the officer agreed. He sent scanned Yosniel's documents and sent them from his own email account. 'He told me not to reply,' Stéphanie said. The next day, the officer followed up with Yosniel to make sure she had received them. Appealed but deportation looms At the Canada border, Yosniel was denied entry under subsection 41 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, a clause used when someone lacks the proper visa. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In a statement to The Gazette, the CBSA did not comment on Yosniel's specific case due to privacy reasons. They said, however, that Cuban nationals must have a visa to enter Canada, even by land, and arriving without one can trigger refusal. Yosniel was not deemed ineligible under subsection 101(1)(e), which is the clause that bars claims under the STCA. Heather Neufeld, an immigration lawyer in Ottawa, who has been represented a number of similar cases, said that it's normal for border officials to say an individual doesn't have the correct visa when they don't believe the marriage is real. 'It's just standard language,' she said. 'I've never seen them make a misrepresentation finding at the border when they deny someone's family exception.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In its statement, the CBSA said: 'Being married to a Canadian citizen does not in itself give foreign nationals the right to enter Canada.' The agency said officers must be convinced the relationship is genuine and that the person meets entry requirements. They are also expected to act 'in a procedurally fair manner,' including reviewing documents and using 'accredited' interpreters when needed. In a separate statement, the office of Lena Diab, Canada's Immigration Minister, also declined to comment on Yosniel's case over privacy. It defended the STCA as 'an important tool' in managing asylum claims. While the agreement allows for family-based exceptions, the burden of proof 'rests on the asylum seeker.' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Yosniel's Canadian lawyer, Hana Marku, who's leading his appeal, estimates it may take more than a year. Meanwhile, his U.S. deportation hearing is set for the end of August. If returned to Cuba, he said he faces treason charges. Due to the time pressure, Marku is attempting to settle with the Canadian authorities, seeking a path for him to re-enter Canada and make his case again. However, if Canada agrees, U.S. immigration must first release him. He would need to post bond, a payment allowing detainees to wait for hearings outside custody. But even posting bond is getting harder. A new directive issued by the Trump administration in July has tightened release rules. Immigrants should be released on bond before their hearings only under 'rare' circumstances, the memo says. Stéphanie, meanwhile, is running her massage therapy business, caring for her daughters, and scraping together funds for legal fees. She was also in the middle of moving apartments. Her husband was supposed to help. She said her youngest daughter keeps asking: 'When is he coming?' Stéphanie doesn't have the answer. 'It doesn't make sense,' she said. 'He didn't do anything wrong.' Toronto & GTA Sunshine Girls Toronto & GTA World Sunshine Girls
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Montreal Gazette
3 days ago
- Montreal Gazette
He fled Cuba's regime and married a Quebecer. Then ICE took him
It was supposed to be the start of a new life. Instead, Yosniel Alginis Villalon Lopez was put into the back of a van and taken to an ICE detention facility. The 34-year-old Cuban ex-judge who refused to bow to the Communist regime had just pulled up to Quebec's Lacolle border crossing. His wife, Stéphanie Penta, a Quebecer, was waiting on the other side. The newly wedded couple brought what they thought would be enough: a marriage certificate, criminal record checks, family photographs, and even joint bank statements. But Yosniel was denied entry. He is now being held at the ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) detention centre in Buffalo, New York. Not only has his future in Canada been jeopardized, he also faces deportation to Cuba. If returned, he said he risks prosecution for treason. His case, immigration experts say, is part of a growing wave of failed crossings at the Canada–U.S. land border. Asylum seekers who arrive in the U.S. before reaching Canada are usually turned back. That's because the Safe Third Country Agreement (STCA) requires they seek asylum in the first safe country they arrive in – in this case, the U.S. Exceptions exist, such as being married to a Canadian. But lawyers say even those pathways have become harder to use. For this story, The Gazette reviewed legal documents and interviewed Yosniel's wife, his lawyer, immigration experts, and Yosniel himself, who spoke from inside ICE detention via a monitored phone call. Defied Cuba's Communist Party It begins in Havana, Cuba. Before he was an immigration detainee, Yosniel was a judge at Havana's People's Provincial Court. He said he had originally wanted to be a lawyer but was encouraged to become a judge because, as a young person, he could better understand and represent the interests of youth in court. Not long after his appointment, he said Communist Party of Cuba officials came calling, asking him to join. He refused. Then, in July 2021, protests erupted across Cuba. Thousands took to the streets against the regime as anger over food shortages and the response to COVID-19 spilled over. When the accused were brought before him, Yosniel said he refused to convict them. The charges didn't reflect the crimes. That didn't go unnoticed. He was accused of treason and threatened with criminal prosecution. State agents also began intimidating him, he said. He went into hiding before fleeing the country in early 2022 through South and Central America. Once at the U.S. border, he filed an asylum claim and settled in Miami, Florida. He lived there while waiting for a decision. He also received a work permit. By day, he said he worked multiple jobs, the latest managing beer inventory. At night, he cleaned a courthouse. A romance sparked on Instagram Back in Quebec, Stéphanie, 36, was raising two daughters in Otterburn Park, aged eight and 11, from a previous decade-long marriage. In October 2024, she had just started running her own massage practice when Yosniel liked a few of her photos on Instagram. She had come up as a suggested follower as the pair shared mutual friends from Cuba. Stéphanie thought they may have known each other but couldn't remember. 'I was curious. Why was he liking my pictures?' They began chatting. Within days, they were spending hours every day messaging and video-calling. 'I'd never connected like that before. It was easy,' Stéphanie said. In December, Stéphanie flew to Miami to meet Yosniel for the first time in-person. She had planned to stay with mutual friends and meet up with him. In the end, they spent every day together. She returned to Miami in January. And February. And every month after. The couple decided to have an impromptu courthouse marriage in May 2025 in Miami. 'It was a beautiful, spontaneous decision,' Stéphanie later wrote in her affidavit. 'I am not a big wedding person and neither is he, but it felt right for us to take this step to announce that this relationship is forever.' At the end of June, Stéphanie took her daughters to New York so they could meet Yosniel for the first time and spend time together as a family. Previously, the children had spoken to Yosniel on the phone. 'Yosniel had spoken about the needs of my children from the start,' Stéphanie said. 'We wanted to build a future together, but I said it was important that he meet my daughters first before we start living under one roof.' The trip, she said, was 'wonderful,' and her kids loved Yosniel. After consulting a Montreal immigration lawyer, they were told Yosniel could come to Canada, as he qualified under the family exception to the STCA. Delays, confusion, and doubt at border On July 2, the couple headed to the crossing in Lacolle, Quebec, one of Canada's busiest land borders. Stéphanie approached from the Canadian side, having left her daughters with their father, while Yosniel arrived from the U.S., carrying his crucial documents, including a marriage certificate, criminal background checks, and joint bank statements, among other papers. Stéphanie said she approached the agents after arriving and tried to explain that her husband coming from the U.S. 'One of them told me, 'There's no point being here, wait in your car,'' she recalled. When she got to her car, her phone rang. It was Yosniel. 'They're moving me,' he said. 'I don't know what's happening.' Yosniel told her they had transferred him to a different, busier building and suggested she go home as it might take a long time. 'Seeking responses to justify his initial perception' The next day, on July 3, Yosniel was called in for his CBSA interview. He asked to speak in Spanish, his first language. A phone interpreter was provided, but he said the translation was poor and had to correct it several times. He was worried the officer wasn't fully understanding him. He said the interview focused on three things: his relationship with Stéphanie, his personal history and U.S. asylum claim, and whether their marriage was genuine. He showed the officer a photo of himself with Stéphanie and her daughters in New York. 'He didn't even look,' Yosniel said. 'The officer said that Stéphanie and I got married so I could immigrate to Canada,' he said. 'I tried to explain that we got married because we were in love.' They had considered having Stéphanie move to the U.S., he said, but it would have disrupted her daughters' lives and her business. When asked about their immigration legal consultation, Yosniel said it took place on June 3 — after the wedding — and showed a video call log on his phone. The officer didn't look at it, he said. That same day, CBSA officers called Stéphanie, who was back at her home, for a phone interview. It last five minutes twenty seconds. Among other questions, she was asked about the consultation with their immigration lawyer. She said it had taken place in 'the last week of May or the first week of June.' Later, Yosniel said a supervising officer delivered the decision. She reviewed the interview notes and signed off on the conclusions. According to Yosniel, when she said the consultation with the immigration lawyer took place in May, Yosniel corrected her — it was June 3, he said. But the officer pushed back, replying that Stéphanie had said May. He tried to show the proof on his phone. The officer, he said, told him it didn't matter. The officer told him he couldn't enter Canada for a year without a visa or special permit. He had 15 days to appeal, but the officer, Yosniel said, advised not to as it would be expensive. Then he was put in a van and handed over to U.S. authorities. Yosniel said that no officer at CBSA doubted the authenticity of his marriage certificate or any of the other documents he presented at the border. 'The officer who interviewed me was just seeking responses to justify his initial perception of me,' Yosniel later wrote in his affidavit. 'When I tried to show evidence that would address his concerns, he paid no attention to it because they were not useful for his conclusions.' 'It's not paradise here.' On the other side, Stéphanie still didn't know what had happened. But a mutual friend with Yosniel's GPS location noticed his position had changed. 'I don't want to alarm you,' the friend told her, 'but he's in the U.S.' Yosniel was eventually allowed a brief call late at night. He used it to tell Stéphanie what had happened. It was 'completely devastating.' Thankfully, she said, her daughters were with their father and didn't see her break down. Yosniel was taken to the Batavia ICE detention centre near Buffalo, a facility that has been reported on for overcrowding. He said he sleeps in a dormitory-style room with roughly 100 others. Meals are served three times a day. The air conditioning works. 'Some cry every night. Some don't speak,' he said. 'It's not paradise here.' But he added that officers have treated him decently so far. Yosniel also has time each day to make phone calls. Every call, including to Stéphanie and The Gazette, is monitored by agents. Unexpected help from ICE Stéphanie started calling lawyers to begin appealing the decision. 'I contacted 70 lawyers,' she said, but only a handful responded. To file an appeal, Stéphanie needed the documents the CBSA gave Yosniel. But she said the agency wasn't responding, despite multiple attempts. So she tried something else. While on the phone with her husband, she asked if an ICE officer was nearby and whether he might scan the documents. To her surprise, the officer agreed. He sent scanned Yosniel's documents and sent them from his own email account. 'He told me not to reply,' Stéphanie said. The next day, the officer followed up with Yosniel to make sure she had received them. Appealed but deportation looms At the Canada border, Yosniel was denied entry under subsection 41 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, a clause used when someone lacks the proper visa. In a statement to The Gazette, the CBSA did not comment on Yosniel's specific case due to privacy reasons. They said, however, that Cuban nationals must have a visa to enter Canada, even by land, and arriving without one can trigger refusal. Yosniel was not deemed ineligible under subsection 101(1)(e), which is the clause that bars claims under the STCA. Heather Neufeld, an immigration lawyer in Ottawa, who has been represented a number of similar cases, said that it's normal for border officials to say an individual doesn't have the correct visa when they don't believe the marriage is real. 'It's just standard language,' she said. 'I've never seen them make a misrepresentation finding at the border when they deny someone's family exception.' In its statement, the CBSA said: 'Being married to a Canadian citizen does not in itself give foreign nationals the right to enter Canada.' The agency said officers must be convinced the relationship is genuine and that the person meets entry requirements. They are also expected to act 'in a procedurally fair manner,' including reviewing documents and using 'accredited' interpreters when needed. In a separate statement, the office of Lena Diab, Canada's Immigration Minister, also declined to comment on Yosniel's case over privacy. It defended the STCA as 'an important tool' in managing asylum claims. While the agreement allows for family-based exceptions, the burden of proof 'rests on the asylum seeker.' 'When is he coming?' Yosniel's Canadian lawyer, Hana Marku, who's leading his appeal, estimates it may take more than a year. Meanwhile, his U.S. deportation hearing is set for the end of August. If returned to Cuba, he said he faces treason charges. Due to the time pressure, Marku is attempting to settle with the Canadian authorities, seeking a path for him to re-enter Canada and make his case again. However, if Canada agrees, U.S. immigration must first release him. He would need to post bond, a payment allowing detainees to wait for hearings outside custody. But even posting bond is getting harder. A new directive issued by the Trump administration in July has tightened release rules. Immigrants should be released on bond before their hearings only under 'rare' circumstances, the memo says. Stéphanie, meanwhile, is running her massage therapy business, caring for her daughters, and scraping together funds for legal fees. She was also in the middle of moving apartments. Her husband was supposed to help. She said her youngest daughter keeps asking: 'When is he coming?' Stéphanie doesn't have the answer. 'It doesn't make sense,' she said. 'He didn't do anything wrong.'
