![\"\"](\"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/DTDc4WFWsAMBJXF-2.jpg\")
Rodel said she her thoughts are with those who remain in\nHong Kong who also helped Snowden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI’m happy, but I’m also sad because they are still left\nbehind,\u201d she said. \u201cThey are still stuck for many years in Hong Kong. They have\nso many troubles in their lives. … I’m hoping they also can come to Canada\nand (have) a better life.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibbo urged the federal government to intercede and bring\nthe remaining refugees to Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe are, though, very concerned that the other families have\nbeen left behind and we would like to see Mr. Trudeau and his government take\nnecessary steps to decide the cases now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snowden’s leaks revealed to the world the global reach of\nthe vast surveillance network of the U.S. and its allies. Snowden, who is still\nrepresented by Tibbo, is now in Moscow and is wanted in the United States on\ncharges related to the leaks. The seven \u201cAngels\u201d gained notoriety in 2016 when\ntheir existence was revealed in Oliver Stone’s film \u201cSnowden,\u201d and Tibbo said\nthey have since faced political persecution in Hong Kong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibbo, originally from Montreal, and three Montreal-based\nlawyers set up a group to raise money for his clients who helped shelter the\npolitical fugitive. They filed asylum applications on their behalf, and\ncollected about $350,000 for their expenses in Hong Kong and in Canada, should\nthey all arrive in the city as privately sponsored refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland was asked about\nthe case Monday in Washington, where she was meeting with U.S. Trade\nRepresentative Robert Lighthizer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFor the private refugees, it’s a quasi-judicial process \u2014\nit’s not a political process,\u201d Freeland said. \u201cAnd we can’t comment on personal\ncases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibbo said Rodel and her daughter’s asylum applications were\nclear cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere really wasn’t a debate there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd for the\nother families, all I can say is that their cases aren’t decided yet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibbo said Rodel fled gender-based persecution and human\ntrafficking in the Philippines before she fled\nto Hong Kong. She and her daughter were accepted by Canada as refugees in\nJanuary 2019. Her legal team kept their status secret until Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe wanted to make sure the wheels of the plane lifted off\nthe ground,\u201d Tibbo said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The other asylum seekers are a couple from Sri Lanka named\nSupun Kellapatha and Nadeeka Paththini, and their two young children. The fifth\nis Ajit Kumara, a Sri Lankan soldier who deserted the military.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aside from the individual reasons they fled Sri Lanka and\nthe Philippines, Tibbo said all of the so-called angels \u201chave a separate\nrefugee claim based on political opinion, stemming from their association and\ntheir assistance to Mr. Snowden in 2013.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Snowden tweeted about Rodel and her daughter on Monday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThank you to all those in Canada and around the world who\nhave made this possible,\u201d he wrote in French. \u201cAfter so many years, the first\nof the families who helped me is free and has a future. But the work is not\nover \u2014 with solidarity and compassion, Canada can save them all.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Tibbo said Snowden was charged with three counts of theft of\ndata under the U.S. Espionage Act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014 with files from Shawn Jeffords<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A woman who escaped violence and human trafficking, and helped shelter former CIA whistleblower Edward Snowden when he fled to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":206880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-206877","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-news","mauthors-giuseppe-valiante","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=206877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":206883,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206877\/revisions\/206883"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/206880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=206877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=206877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=206877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}