MAN WANTED IN U.S. FOR ESCAPING PRISON CAMP 28 YEARS AGO GETS DATE FOR
HEARING ON REFUGEE BID

Vancouver (CP) - A West Vancouver man wanted in New York state for escaping
from a prison work camp 28 years ago, will finally get a chance to convince
Canada to let him stay.

Immigration authorities ordered Richardson out of the country at a hearing
on January 21, 1999 for entering Canada with a criminal record and lying
about his identity.

But his deportation was put on hold because he claimed refugee status.

Richardson's hearing was originally scheduled for January of this year but
was postponed. Last week, he was sent a notice to appear at the
Immigration and Refugee Board's downtown offices on April 25.

Richardson's wife, Amalia, who has breast cancer, said she knew little
about the hearing, but said waiting for a decision from the government has
been difficult.

"It isn't easy," she said Sunday.

"We have to work our way through it and hopefully, at some point, we'll get
the whole business resolved. But it's been very harsh on both of us."

Richardson, 50, works as a lab technician. He also volunteers with the SPCA.

As a college student, he was convicted of selling $20 worth of LSD to an
undercover police officer and sentenced in 1971 to four years in prison

He was originally sent to Attica, and later transferred to a work camp,
where he fled after serving only a few months of his sentence.

The Attica riots, in which 43 prisoners died, occurred just weeks after
Richardson was transferred to the work camp.

In 1998, the RCMP was tipped off by U.S. authorities that Richardson was in
Canada and he was arrested.

Last fall, Richardson's lawyers asked a judge in Rochester, NY to reduce or
vacate his prison sentence, because of his law-abiding life in Canada.

But last November, the judge refused, urging Richardson -- who was known in
New York as Christopher Perlstein -- to "take personal responsibility" for
his crime and return to the U.S.

What has followed that decision has been a complex legal stalemate.

Howard Relin, the district attorney in Rochester, has said some arrangement
could probably be made for Richardson to serve his sentence in a Canadian
prison.

But Richardson has not been extradited to the U.S. His removal from Canada
is based on him having broken Canadian laws, not U.S. ones.

Therefore, Richardson's lawyer, Michael Bolton, is urging Immigration
Minister Elinor Caplan to give Richardson a special ministerial permit
allowing him to stay in Canada.

So far, the ministry has not issued such a permit.

Richardson's only other hope is that his refugee claim will be successful.

His immigration lawyer, Alex Stojicevic, said Richardson is claiming
refugee status because he believes the sentence he received in 1971 was
unduly harsh because of his involvement in anti-Vietnam War activities.

The odds, however, are not in Richardson's favour.

The IRB typically does not see those fleeing the United States as
legitimate refugees. Only a handful have ever been successful.

Even Stojicevic conceded in an interview last year that "less than one per
cent" of all U.S. refugee claims are successful.