Ethiopian spy eligible to apply for refugee status, court rules, despite agency’s targeting of dissidents abroad

A former member of an Ethiopian spy agency that targeted that country’s journalists and dissidents abroad is eligible to apply for refugee status in Canada because his spy activities were “not contrary to Canada’s interests,” the Federal Court of Appeal has ruled.Medhanie Weldemariam, who worked as a software developer for an Ethiopian state security agency, landed at Toronto’s Pearson Airport in 2017 and applied for refugee status, saying he was at risk of persecution if he returned home.A federal agency then declared him inadmissible under a law barring those who worked in espionage “against Canada, or contrary to Canada’s interests.” It said Ethiopia’s Information Network Security Agency had spied on members of the country’s diaspora in the United States and Belgium. Because those countries are allies of Canada, Mr. Weldemariam’s work was therefore contrary to Canada’s interests, the immigration division of the Immigration and Refugee Board ruled.