Four “guardian angels” of Edward Snowden refugees in Canada

Published on : 09/29/2021 – 09:40

A family, who provided shelter to former NSA computer scientist and whistleblower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong while on the run, arrived in Canada on Tuesday, September 28, the Canadian NGO “For The Refugees” reported. .

Supun Thilina Kellapatha and Nadeeka Dilrukshi Nonis, in their thirties, along with their two children aged 9 and 5, landed in Toronto late Tuesday afternoon before heading to Montreal.

>> To see on France 24: REPORTERS – Exclusive: the “guardian angels” of Edward Snowden

The new Canadian permanent residents will join the Filipino Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana in the Quebec metropolis, both of whom arrived in Canada in March 2019 in a similar context and sponsored by the same organization. Supun Thilina Kellapatha is the father of young Keana.

In 2013, Edward Snowden had revealed the existence of a global surveillance system for communications and the Internet, and had fled the United States to join Hong Kong first.

“Let us admit the last person before it’s too late”

“The Canadian authorities have already done the right thing by admitting six of Edward Snowden’s seven guardian angels to Canada and what we are asking now is that we admit the last person before it is too late” , lawyer Marc-André Séguin, president and founder of the Montreal organization, told AFP.

The seventh and last “guardian angel” to offer shelter to the most wanted man on the planet during his run, Ajith Pushpakumara, is still in Hong Kong “where his safety is at risk”, according to the organization which has been sponsoring South Asian families since they began their immigration process about five years ago.

“For The Refugees” said they were delighted with the arrival in Canada of Edward Snowden’s “guardian angels”, but deplored the slowness of the process with Canadian authorities: “Their immigration applications were all filed in January 2017 and what we see is a great disparity in the processing times for the various requests “.

A team of volunteers must accompany the Sri Lankan family to Montreal, where they will settle in an apartment provided by the organization that takes care of them for the next twelve months.

With AFP