After nearly 60 years in Canada, B.C. man faces deportation to the Netherlands<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\nVan Heest was first ordered deported in January 2008 after he was found inadmissible to stay in Canada because of a 2001 conviction for assault with a weapon.<\/p>\n
His is one of several cases in which immigrants face removal after the previous Conservative government toughened laws regarding the deportation of non-citizen criminals, his lawyer Peter Golden said in an earlier interview with CBC.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, he\u00a0was convicted of more than 40 criminal charges between 1976 and 2013. He was denied permanent Canadian residency because of his criminal record.<\/p>\n
Van Heest said his crimes were\u00a0the result of bipolar disorder, which he developed as a teenager. He served nine\u00a0months for assault, but said\u00a0he’s in control of his mental illness now and doesn’t drink or do drugs.<\/p>\n
Motion denied<\/h2>\n
After years of delays, Van Heest’s latest motion to stay in Vancouver was denied last Thursday. He had applied\u00a0for\u00a0permanent residence status based on humanitarian and compassionate grounds.<\/p>\n
![\"Len](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/5bac3_len-van-heest-and-friend.PNG\")
<\/p>\n
Van Heest says goodbye to longtime friend Karen Holst-Larsen at Vancouver International Airport. (Dillon Hodgin\/CBC)<\/p>\n
Just before 3 p.m. Monday, Canadian border officials escorted Van\u00a0Heest\u00a0onto the\u00a0plane.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I always cheer for Canada, you know, and all the Canadians I root for,” he said in thanking friends and family. “But they’ve taken it all away from me now.”<\/p>\n
In court documents, Van Heest\u00a0said that he would not be capable of obtaining\u00a0health care, housing, income or a social network in the Netherlands.<\/p>\n
Van Heest leaves behind in Canada his mother, Trixie, 81, whom he lived with, as well as his brother, and his nieces and nephews.
\u00a0\u00a0
“We play Scrabble. She does my laundry. I help her cut the grass and stuff. We’re just the best of friends. It’s devastating my mom, it’s devastating me, it’s devastating my whole family.”<\/p>\n
Green Party Leader\u00a0Elizabeth May had appealed to\u00a0Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale\u00a0and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen\u00a0to stop the deportation.<\/p>\n
“I’m very concerned because once a person is deported, it becomes extremely difficult for them to ever come back into Canada,” May said in an interview.<\/p>\n
![\"Len](\"http:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/wp-content\/plugins\/RSSPoster_PRO\/cache\/53f12_len-van-heest-deportation.PNG\")
<\/p>\n
Van Heest says Canada is ‘the only home I’ve ever known. And they’re kicking me out now.’<\/p>\n
“His only family is in Canada. He has no connections, that we know of, in the Netherlands. He doesn’t speak the language. I can’t even begin to imagine how he’s going to manage. It’s just heartbreaking.”<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for federal Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen said the minister wouldn’t comment on the case.<\/p>\n
Like a ‘foreign country’<\/h2>\n
Van Heest’s lawyer, Robin Bajer, said\u00a0he is appealing to have Van Heest granted permanent residence status on compassionate grounds. But that decision could take up to 36 months.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, Van Heest will be waiting in limbo in the Netherlands. He said he doesn’t know his relatives there very well.<\/p>\n
“I have no plans once I arrive,” he said. “My cousin is going to meet me there . . . or my auntie, or whoever she is, and I’ll just take it from there.<\/p>\n
“It’s like a foreign country, I have no idea what I’m going to do.”<\/p>\n
\nArticle source: http:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/news\/canada\/british-columbia\/courtenay-resident-deported-to-netherlands-1.4012844?cmp=rss<\/a>\r\n<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A 59-year-old B.C. man who had lived in Canada since he was a baby\u00a0arrived in Amsterdam today after being\u00a0deported to the Netherlands because of his criminal offences, which he says were due to his mental illness. Len Van Heest\u00a0was met at\u00a0Amsterdam Airport Schiphol\u00a0by his cousin Monique Lemstra, according to his brother, Daniel, who lives in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73528,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[84],"class_list":["post-73525","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-political","tag-political"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73525","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73525"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73525\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73528"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73525"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73525"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usa.timesofnews.com\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73525"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}