OTTAWA – The Canadian government denied convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein permission to enter the country in 2018 due to his criminal past, U.S. government documents published Friday reveal.
The U.S. Justice Department has announced the release of some 3.5 million pages of redacted documents related to Epstein. They include correspondence with the Canadian government from his personal email account [email protected].
Despite his criminal record, Epstein contacted the Canadian consulate in Los Angeles seeking a temporary resident permit for a planned trip to Vancouver from April 11 to 13 in 2018 so he could attend a TED conference there.
The Consulate General of Canada in Los Angeles wrote back on April 4 that year to tell him that his application had been rejected because he was convicted of a crime considered an indictable offence in Canada.
“While a Temporary Resident Permit is intended to allow entry to Canada in spite of criminal offences, it can be issued only in exceptional circumstances that might be best described as humanitarian and compassionate, or on occasion, when compelling Canadian interests are served,” the letter said.
“After a careful and sympathetic review balancing all the factors, I have determined that there are insufficient grounds to merit the issuance of a permit in your case.”
Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 on charges of soliciting sex with a minor.
Some of the documentation — including a customs baggage record — suggest Epstein travelled to Vancouver in March 2014 and stayed in an executive suite at the Four Seasons Hotel, despite his criminal record.
His travel itinerary for that trip shows he had planned to attend a dinner at the Blue Water Cafe restaurant with billionaires Jeff Bezos and Larry Page.
Numerous emails, itineraries and booking records suggest he had at least planned to travel to Vancouver in other years as well, but it was not immediately clear if he did.
One email exchange involving his bookkeeper suggested he planned a 2016 trip to B.C., but then “aborted this entire trip when he was en route there.”
The documents were disclosed under a law U.S. President Donald Trump enacted in response to mounting public pressure that compels the U.S. government to release information it collected on the disgraced financier.
