AFTER PRISON, THERE IS JOY IN THE RAIN AND SKY

Holding hands and kissing, Allen and Amailia Richardson headed off for a
celebratory cup of coffee.

A major hurdle in allowing the West Vancouver former fugitive to stay in
Canada had just been cleared.

"I feel very relieved," said Richardson, sporting a Canadian flag pin on
his lapel.

"I am pleased that the humanitarian and compassionate spirit in Canada has
resolved this case."

In a 10-minute hearing, the federal Immigration and Refugee Appeal board
rubber-stamped an application to allow Richardson to appply for landed
immigrant status.

He returned to B.C. last wekend after spending nine months in a New York
state jail for a 30-year-old drug offence.

Richardson's wife Amalia originally had her application to sponsor her
husband ruled out. After Richardson went back to serve his sentence - he
was given four years in 1971 for selling $20 of LSD to an undercover cop in
Rochester, N.Y. - he was allowed back into Canada on a ministerial permit.

He'd fled prison and crossed the border illegally before settling in West
Vancouver and working at UBC's TRIUMF as a research technician. Richardson
also volunteered for the SPCA and became a model citizen.

Immigration's Judy Milne told adjudicator Sherry Wiebe that while the
department didn't condone drug trafficking, there were extenuating
circumstances.

The included the fact the minor drug offence occurred 30 years ago and that
Richardson, 51, is unlikely to re-offend and has led a productive life in
Canada.

Wiebe said she was allowing the appeal on humanitarian grounds.

"It's been a long road home," said Amalia, later. "I think right won out
at the end of the day. We're back home and that's the way we want to stay.

"Allen needs to tread around the house and say,'Am I really here?' To walk
around in th rain and look at the stars."

Richardson said his first week of freedom has been wonderful.

"When you've returned from prison, every simple pleasure from fresh air to
rain on your face to walking the dog to sitting in a comfortable chair in
your own living room is a real, sensual pleasure," he added.

"I hope to always retain that joy in the simple things. I do have to work
through anxieties and paranoias that linger, going through a long-term
experience like this."