A man who boarded a flight from Hong Kong to Vancouver while wearing a mask, triggering concerns about airline safety and border services leaks, has been ordered to stay behind bars for another month.
The Immigration and Refugee Board ruled Wednesday that the man, who was on an Air Canada flight disguised as though he was elderly, must remain in custody until his identity has been definitively established.
That decision went against the wishes of the man's counsel and capped a lengthy set of hearings that included the challenge of a media ban specifically aimed at two Chinese-language outlets.
Daphne Shaw-Dyck, the board's adjudicator, ruled the Ministry of Public Safety has made reasonable efforts to establish the man's identity since he boarded the flight on Oct. 29.
She shot down suggestions from the man's counsel that the ministry was dragging its heels by waiting for secondary documentation after a national identification card was verified. Ms. Shaw-Dyck also refused a request to release the man to a Toronto residence while his refugee claim is processed.
"At this early stage of the proceedings, it being a little over a week and a half since you arrived in Canada, it seems to me that there has been reasonable progress in your case," she told the man, who listened to the detention review via translated teleconference.
His next hearing has been scheduled for the refugee board's downtown Vancouver office on Dec. 8.
The detention review itself was far shorter than another hearing, this one on media access to the case. It started on Monday and continued Wednesday afternoon.
Daniel McLeod, one of the man's duty counsel, asked the refugee board earlier this week to ban some Chinese media - if not all reporters - from the proceedings, citing articles that said Sing Tao, Ming Pao and World Journal are influenced by the Chinese government.
Mr. McLeod said at the time he had "serious concerns" that his client's safety would be jeopardized if the three Chinese-language outlets were allowed to cover the refugee hearings.
On Wednesday, Mr. McLeod dropped his request for World Journal to be excluded. But if the other two Chinese outlets couldn't be banned, he asked that all reporters be shut out.
Mr. McLeod said he was concerned that information from the proceedings could find its way back to Chinese officials, putting his client's family at risk.
The man's case made headlines around the world after an internal Canada Border Services Agency bulletin and several photographs of him were leaked. CBSA has launched an investigation into the incident. Mr. McLeod had harsh words for the border services agency, calling its actions "negligent."
Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said last week federal officials "may need to step up our game" to prevent the mask ruse from being duplicated. Ottawa is also investigating the screening practices of Air Canada.
David Sutherland, a lawyer representing Sing Tao at Wednesday's hearing, urged the refugee board to open the proceedings to all reporters. He said the "cat is out of the bag" when it comes to the man's case, since the photo with a black bar over his eyes has been seen all over the globe.
Mr. Sutherland called the allegations against Sing Tao "ridiculous" and laughed off the notion that its reporters are "foreign spies."
The editor-in-chief of Ming Pao also appeared before the adjudicator Wednesday, stressing his publication's independence.
Ms. Shaw-Dyck, citing the need to balance the media's right to access and the claimant's right to privacy, issued a publication ban for the case that's similar to one issued for migrants who entered Canada in August aboard the MV Sun Sea.
The ban prevents the publication of any information that could serve to disclose the identity of the man, his family, or associates.
New photographs of the man are also banned, though the media is permitted to use the border services photo that's already gone viral.
Ms. Shaw-Dyck also refused to bar reporters from the two Chinese-language outlets, saying the argument made by Mr. McLeod was "not persuasive."