JANE ARMSTRONG
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
March 19, 2009 at 5:29 AM EDT
VANCOUVER — A Vancouver lawyer with "sterling" credentials said he was handcuffed and detained as he made his way to board a Beijing-bound flight this week after customs officials at Vancouver International Airport accused him of being a human trafficker.
Dongdong Huang, 51, was en route to China after wrapping a court case in Vancouver on behalf of 15 Chinese nationals whose requests for seasonal work visas had been denied. Mr. Huang was seeking a judicial review in Canada for his clients and was carrying their passports.
On Tuesday, he was scheduled to fly to China on a business trip to return the Chinese passports to the Canadian embassy there.
But when he attempted to pass through the international departure gates, a security official searched his carry-on bag and discovered the passports. Mr. Huang said he explained that they were for a court case, but the security official summoned customs officials, who handcuffed him and accused him of being a human smuggler.
Mr. Huang was then led through the departure lounge, his wrists handcuffed behind his back and taken to an interview room, where two officials interrogated him for about an hour.
The march through the departure lounge was humiliating, said Mr. Huang, who has a PhD in law from the University of Ottawa. He practises commercial law from his firm in Port Coquitlam just west of Vancouver. He is also licensed to practice law in China and is a seasonal lecturer at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, B.C.
Mr. Huang said the only reason he took the immigration case was as a favour to some relatives in China.
"I've never been handcuffed before," he said yesterday in an interview at Vancouver International Airport just before his flight, which he was forced to re-book. "I am well known in the Chinese community and this was humiliating to be handcuffed in public.
"As far as I know, it's not an offence to carry passports."
Mr. Huang suspected racism played a factor in the decision to handcuff and detain him. The two Customs officials appeared incredulous when he said he was a lawyer. Mr. Huang has lived in Canada for 25 years but still speaks with a thick accent. Mr. Huang recorded the badge numbers of the officials but they weren't wearing name tags.
As they walked through the departure lounge, Mr. Huang said, one Customs official radioed instructions to have Mr. Huang's baggage removed from his flight.
"You must be involved with human trafficking with so many passports," the Customs official warned him
"I said: 'No, I am a lawyer, I told you.'"
A spokesman for the Canada Border Services Agency said she would look into the incident, but did not return calls later in the day.
Mr. Huang has worked for some of the top law firms in Canada, including Fasken Martineau in Vancouver and Torys in Toronto.
"His credentials are sterling," Vancouver lawyer Bruce McLeod said. "It's quite a shock to hear this. He is a very experienced lawyer and has been practising in B.C. for many years."
Customs officials took Mr. Huang to an interview room, he said, and continued to grill him about the passports. He repeated that he was a lawyer and instructed them to call the lawyer who argued the government side in the visa court case. He also gave them the name of the clerk in the Federal Court registry.
But Mr. Huang didn't know either numbers by heart and he said the Customs officials refused to provide him with a blue pages directory.
At one point, when he asked for a second glass of water, one official replied in a mocking tone, "Say please."
About 40 minutes after he first walked through the security gates, Mr. Huang said he was permitted to search his laptop for the telephone numbers of the government lawyer who was involved in the visa case.
Mr. Huang gave the telephone numbers to one of his interrogators, who called the government lawyer. Another official, who was entering the data of the 15 Chinese passports on a computer, told Mr. Huang he would be released once he finished.
A short time later, he was released. When Mr. Huang complained about his missed flight, the official replied, "It is not our business."
Mr. Huang said he missed client meetings in Beijing that were scheduled for yesterday.
He has written a letter of complaint to the Customs office at the Vancouver International Airport. Mr. Huang said he wants financial compensation for the missed work day and the cost of re-booking his Beijing flight as he was a no-show on Tuesday.
In the written letter of complaint, Mr. Huang also demanded an investigation into the incident and an apology.
"If these Customs officers behave like this to me, how do they behave to other people?" he said as he gathered his belongings before heading to the departure gate. Yesterday, Mr. Huang proceeded through the gates without incident.
A sign on the wall at the international departure gate warns passengers that they may be required to undergo a search.
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