Don Lewis Deported From Canada Many Times

By 250 News

Williams Lake, B.C. - An Officer with the Canadian Border Service has testified at the Coroner’s inquest in Williams Lake that his department deported Don Lewis on several occasions only to have him reappear in Canada.

Canadian Border Service Officer, Colby Brose said Lewis first came to light in his department when he failed to leave the country after being here for a period longer than the normal six months. He was picked up and was told to voluntarily leave Canada on April 7^th, 2003. The department however did not receive confirmation of his departure. Colby told the inquest before Coroner Shane DeMeyer that Lewis wasn't considered a public safety issue and so he wasn’t escorted to the border. “We deal with about 2,000 to be removed in BC every year “.

When Lewis failed to cross the border, a warrant for his arrest was issued on April 10th, 2003. He was arrested in Whistler on October 13^th removed from Canada and turned over to US officials at the border. He was also issued an exclusion order meaning that he could not return to Canada without application.

On February 18^th, 2004 Lewis was again arrested, this time in Kamloops, and again taken to the border and turned over to US authorities. Colby told the court because his department is different from the immigration dept. he did not know whether Lewis had applied for Canadian citizenship.

In April 2004, Lewis was again arrested, this time in 100 Mile House after he opened a Karate School in that community. He did not give false information or resist arrest the inquest was told, but was taken into custody and dropped at the border in May 2004 by the Whistler RCMP.

Lewis’s widow told the inquest that her ex husband had been following any move that Lewis made in coming to Canada and would turn him in. She said "We were a couple and my ex-husband did not like that." Lewis’s widow had lived in Whistler at that time.

In May of 2005 Lewis was arrested once again by the Whistler RCMP and on this occasion he was charged with resisting arrest by the police. He was taken to the US border in July and sent back into the United States.

Back in Canada again he was deported on Feb 3-2006 from the Squamish area.

During this same year ,police acting on a tip went into the area near Whistler where it was reported that a man answering Lewis’s description had been cutting and selling firewood. Two Border officers and a least one police officer approached a man fitting Lewis’s description but he fled into the bush and eluded police and border officers.

On February 14^th an application was filed by Lewis’s wife Sara seeking to sponsor him into Canada. She told the inquest, "I couldn’t move to the States because I had three kids, and we hoped to get him to be able to come to Canada."

Sara Lewis told the inquest again that she believed it was her ex husband who was turning in Lewis, "I loved him and I wanted to be with him" she said.

The inquest also learned that in addition to Lewis resisting arrest in the Whistler incident he also had been convicted of resisting arrest in connection with evasion of income tax in the USA. He was convicted in that incident with 4^th degree assault.

Coroner DeMeyer would not allow this testimony to go before the jury, he said, "The Jury should not be influenced by what took place in this man’s life 11 years before this event”.

Lewis died August 13th after being shot by an RCMP officer in McLeese Lake.

The inquest continues.

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