“Plamen Kozarov,” writes Federal Court Judge The Honourable Sean Harrington, “is a Canadian citizen; not a very good one, but a citizen nevertheless. He is a convicted drug dealer. He is currently serving a sentence in the United States for having distributed not less than 100 kilos of cocaine, 100 kilos of marijuana and 97,000 units of Ecstasy.”
Kozarov, 52, was born in Bulgaria but came to Canada as a refugee in 1977 and became a Canadian citizen in 1982.
He now finds himself behind bars in Florida serving a sentence of 5 years and 10 months on the drug trafficking charges. Kozarov, though, would prefer to serve his sentence back in Canada and asked to do so.
Canada and the U.S. have agreements for this sort of thing. First, the Canadian prisoner must ask the U.S. authorities for permission to serve out his sentence in Canada. In this case, the U.S. said yes. Then the Canadian prisoner must ask Canadian authorities for permission. Corrections Canada officials reviewed the case and recommended that Stockwell Day, the Minister for Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Canada, grant Kozarov’s request.
But Day said no. And he said no, not once, but twice.
Kozarov asked for a judicial review of Day’s decision — alleging that Day had some sort of agenda against him. Judge Harrington, in his decision, comes down on the side of the Minister.
If you have a few minutes, the Judge’s decision makes for some interesting reading on an interesting case.