A former associate of the Kelowna Hells Angels has had his deportation order halted at the last minute, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
David Roger Revell, 56, is a United Kingdom citizen, but grew up in Kelowna when his family moved to the city in 1974, when he was just 10 years old.
In 2016, Revell was issued a deportation order on the grounds of “serious and organized criminality”, following a 2008 cocaine trafficking conviction that stemmed from an RCMP investigation into the East End Chapter of the Hells Angels, and two 2013 domestic assault convictions.
Revell has had several attempts at appealing the deportation order dismissed, and he was scheduled to leave the country for the U.K. Tuesday. But on Monday, Federal Judge Michel Shore granted Revell a “deferral of removal” in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Revell argued that the U.K. has been hit particularly hard by the virus, and he would be forced to quarantine for 14 days upon his arrival, or face a £1,000 fine. He said he does not have the funds to pay for a hotel for 14 days, and he has no family or support system in the country.
In his ruling, Judge Shore agreed that Revell would suffer “irreparable harm” if he were deported to the U.K. at this time.
“It is one thing to re-establish oneself in a country the applicant does not know, it is quite another to do so when the world has been turned upside-down by COVID-19,” Judge Shore said in his ruling. “This context would most certainly lead to grave peril for the applicant and, perhaps, others in his midst, if his quarantine is not respected due to such proposed air travel and waystations where he may find himself.”
Judge Shore added that Revell “does not appear to be an imminent danger to the public in Canada or to be a flight risk.”
Revell, who currently lives in Provost, Alta. where he works as an oil well technician, will remain in Canada until medical professionals deem it safe for him to be deported to the U.K.
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Source: Castanet by Nicholas Johansen