‘They feel that he may be a flight risk’: American who fled to B.C. awaits Jan. 6 pardon

A man who fled a jail sentence in the U.S. for a life in Whistler has been arrested, as questions arise on how he arrived into the country.

An Indiana man who was facing a sentence for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 riots in Washington, D.C., remains in a Surrey detention centre post-Trump pardons.

Antony Vo’s lawyer, Robert Tibbo, told CTV News that they are waiting for the certificate confirming his pardon in the hopes that it will expedite his release back to the United States.

This comes a day after President Donald Trump pardoned and commuted the prison sentences or vowed to dismiss the cases of all of the 1,500-plus people charged with crimes at the U.S. Capitol riot.

“Mr. Vo felt, in his view, that his prosecution was politically motivated. So in arriving in Canada, he raised a refugee claim based on political persecution,” said Tibbo.

Tibbo went on to say that Vo is not being held in detention because he crossed the border illegally, rather him being deemed a flight risk.

“The adjudicators have decided that they do not want to release him. They feel that he may be a flight risk, and that and that’s a decision that I don’t think is reasonable,” said Tibbo.

“It may be an error in law.”

Tibbo went on to say that they’re in the process of preparing to go to the federal court to review the decision judicially.

CTV News contacted CBSA and the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada to confirm the reasoning, but they have yet to respond.

On Jan. 6, 2025, Vo was arrested in Whistler under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act on the grounds that he was inadmissible to Canada and that there was no record of him travelling into the country at any official port of entry.

According to verdict documents, Vo was found guilty of entering and being disruptive on restricted building grounds, as well as violent entry or conduct in a Capitol building and demonstrating in a Capitol building.

He was sentenced to nine months in jail.

Tibbo expects Vo to be officially pardoned in the coming days, but if he does not receive the certification, he will resume his claim for asylum in Canada.