Tags: CN | Canada | Snowden | Refugees

Canada Takes Refugee Who Sheltered Snowden

Monday, 25 March 2019 05:38 PM EDT

TORONTO (AP) — A Filipino woman who helped shelter former NSA contractor Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong has been granted refugee status in Canada.

Lawyer Robert Tibbo said that his client Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana would arrive in Canada on Monday.

Tibbo represented Rodel as she sought asylum in Hong Kong in 2013 due to an alleged kidnap and rape by militants in her homeland. The attorney asked her to help Snowden hide out there after he leaked documents revealing extensive U.S. government surveillance.

Tibbo said Hong Kong rejected Rodel's asylum request and since then officials there have grilled her over her contacts with Snowden, who now lives in exile in Russia.

Tibbo and a nonprofit group called For the Refugees wants Canada to accept five others who helped Snowden.

Snowden's lawyer decided to go public with the identities of the refugees after learning that movie director Oliver Stone had found out about them and would incorporate their role into his film on Snowden, which was released in 2016. The three families, who didn't realize they were harboring one of the world's most wanted figures at the time, said they feared being sent back.

"Since that became public they have been targeted by the Hong Kong government who called up all of their refugee claimants and denied them all on the same day after about a half hour," For the Refugees spokesman Ethan Cox said. "They have had their support payments cut off. They've only been able to survive off donations to our non-profit."

Tibbo said Snowden is "extremely happy" that Rodel and her daughter will find safety and security in Canada.

"While we are very happy that Mr. Trudeau's government made the decision to grant Vanessa and her seven-year old daughter refugee status the fact that the Canadian government has left the other families behind is really unsettling," Tibbo said. "The Trudeau government should have just simply treated them as one group and brought them in all at one time."

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said she could not comment on privately sponsored refugee applications.

© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


GlobalTalk
A Filipino woman who helped shelter former NSA contractor Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong has been granted refugee status in Canada.Lawyer Robert Tibbo said that his client Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana would arrive in Canada on Monday.Tibbo represented...
CN,Canada,Snowden,Refugees
351
2019-38-25
Monday, 25 March 2019 05:38 PM
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