Image Credit: FACEBOOK: Canadian Border Services Agency

A man in a Kelowna drug recovery centre is allowed to remain in Canada after dodging immigration officials for years.

Marc Mallon Innes has lived in Canada for more than 40 years, but he started using crystal meth in 2012, leading him into a decade of criminality, according to a recently published Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada decision.

Innes was convicted of criminal harassment against a friend of his ex-wife in 2013, which was followed by a deportation order three years later. He managed to have that order stayed provided he abide by certain conditions for three years, but he dodged border services agents and racked up more criminal charges in that time, according to the decision.

Adjudicator Craig Constantino said Innes still has a chance of recovery and a law-abiding life in deciding to give him one more chance to stay in the country.

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Innes is in his mid-40s and moved from Scotland with his parents at five years old.

He once had a stable job, a relationship and raised two children, but his methamphetamine use caused his life to "unravel" more than ten years ago.

Along with the criminal harassment conviction, he was convicted of uttering threats against the same man and assaulting his ex-wife.

Constantino said Innes has a "pattern of criminality," which included violent offences and breaches of both bail and probation conditions. At the time of his January hearing, for which Innes was an hour late to appear, he was also facing a break and enter charge in New Westminster.

That charge was eventually stayed, but Constantino said his appeal would have been revoked if Innes was convicted.

Innes is now living in a drug recovery centre in Kelowna, away from both the users and criminals he once associated with in the Lower Mainland, according to the decision.

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Despite having dodged border services in the years following his initial 2019 appeal, he's been given another set of strict conditions for the next three years.

With his experience in the court system, Innes described himself to Constantino as a "bullshitter."

He's been able to "tread water in the legal system for years by saying what he knew decision-makers wanted to hear with respect to his addiction and interest in overcoming his addiction," Constantino's decision reads.

Constantino said it would be within his discretion to dismiss the appeal and agree with the government's position that Innes "squandered his opportunity to turn his life around," but he gave Innes one more chance.

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Innes has no connections to the UK and his only family is in Canada. Constantino said he would likely find adequate healthcare and recovery services in Scotland if he was deported, but concluded Innes' best chance at recovery would be to stay in Canada.

"If he were removed, (Innes) would effectively be exiled from the country he grew up in, his family, his children and everyone who he has ever cared for or cared about him," Constantino said.

Although Innes has been in and out of drug recovery for years, never staying more than three months, he's now required to live at the Kelowna recovery centre until July 2024.

Until August 2026, Innes will have to continue checking in with border services, including a requirement to notify the agency if there are any new criminal charges against him.

If convicted, his appeal will be revoked and he will be deported to Scotland, according to the decision.

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