By Darah Hansen, Vancouver Sun. June 4, 2009

VANCOUVER — A former KGB agent seeking refuge in a B.C. church to avoid deportation said his new home “is a palace compared to the alternative.” For three days, Mikhail Lennikov, 48, has been living in sanctuary in a makeshift bedroom in the basement of the First Lutheran Church in east Vancouver. His days are spent in the glare of the media spotlight, fending off questions from reporters on the phone and in person about his past association with the Russian spy agency, his life in Canada, and his current status in the country.

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By Peter McKnight, Vancouver Sun. June 3, 2009

With the stroke of a pen, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney could allow Mikhail Lennikov to stay in Canada. That one person has such power might strike you as odd, but then again it was was one other person who, with the stroke of a pen, decided that Lennikov must leave. And that is the problem. Lennikov is, of course, the former KGB agent who sought sanctuary in Vancouver’s First Lutheran Church after a deportation order was issued. The failed refugee claimant, who has lived in Canada for 12 years, was declared inadmissible by the Immigration and Refugee Board in 2006, and on Monday, a federal Court refused to stay the order.

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By Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun June 2

A Vancouver church granted sanctuary Tuesday to Mikhail Lennikov, a former Russian KGB agent who is facing deportation. “We did so because we believe it is the right thing to do,” said Pastor Richard Hergesheimer of Vancouver’s First Lutheran Church. “We will provide him with a safe place to stay until he is no longer under the threat of deportation and is free to return home and be reunited with his wife, Irina, and his son, Dmitri,” he added. Lennikov, 48, who lives in the Vancouver suburb of Burnaby with his family, is a member of the church congregation.

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By Bruce Ward, The Ottawa Citizen. April 25, 2009

The Ottawa Citizen OTTAWA — Nepalese refugee Shree Kumar Rai is set to begin his new life here as a legal immigrant after more than two years of confinement in a church. “He was accepted as a permanent resident to Canada on Thursday,” said Patricia Paul-Carson, speaking on behalf of the First Unitarian Congregation, a church on Cleary Avenue near Woodroffe Avenue.  “He gained entry as a skilled worker. He had to meet all the immigration requirements. He had to go through the whole shebang from beginning to end. There was nothing special that he got.”

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September 24, 2008. Stuart Laidlaw. Toronto Star

For a Nigerian woman claiming sanctuary in a Mississauga church to avoid deportation, getting arrested may have been the best thing that ever happened to her. Felicia (Ola) Abimbola Akinwalere took up residence in Trinity Anglican Church two days ahead of her scheduled deportation in October 2006. Since then, she has rarely ventured outside, but left the building on Monday, only to have two Peel Region police officers arrest her. With Akinwalere in custody in an immigration holding centre on Rexdale Blvd., within hours, her lawyers and immigration officials negotiated a stay of the deportation order against her.

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