Canadian immigration officials deny actor Randy Quaid’s request for permanent resident status
By The Canadian Press - Sunday, January 27, 2013 - 0 Comments
TORONTO – Canadian immigration officials have denied U.S. actor Randy Quaid’s request for permanent…
TORONTO – Canadian immigration officials have denied U.S. actor Randy Quaid’s request for permanent residency status in Canada.
The actor’s wife, Evi Quaid, said Sunday the application was denied because he doesn’t have a passport.
She said the passport was seized by Canadian officials and Quaid will be at the U.S. consulate in Toronto on Feb. 6 in an attempt to get it back.
A Canadian government official confirmed late Saturday to The Associated Press that Quaid’s request for permanent status has been denied. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Quaid can appeal the residency decision to the federal court.
U.S. officials last year refused to seek extradition of the actor and his wife from Canada to face felony vandalism charges in Santa Barbara, Calif., but authorities in the coastal town say they’ll still have the couple arrested if they return to the states.
Quaid has sought to stay in Canada, claiming he was being hunted by “Hollywood star-whackers” who had killed his friends David Carradine and Heath Ledger.
Quaid’s trouble began in 2010 when he and his wife were arrested for causing more than $5,000 damage at a hillside home they were renting.
Randy Quaid is the older brother of actor Dennis Quaid and is best-known for his roles in films such as “National Lampoon’s Vacation” and “Independence Day.”
He won a Golden Globe award for his depiction of President Lyndon Johnson in a TV movie in the late 1980s.
-
The Commons: What alien hordes may come
By Aaron Wherry - Monday, November 22, 2010 at 6:30 PM - 110 Comments
The Scene. With the opposition persisting for another day to question the allocation of some $16-billion for new warplanes, it was Laurie Hawn, a former air force colonel himself, who rose to impress upon the House a most profound question—perhaps the single most daunting dilemma that faces this or any government.Earlier in the day, the Finance Minister had invited himself in for coffee and cookies at the house of some nice suburban family to demonstrate that, from here on, his government was done spending taxpayer dollars recklessly (or words to that effect). That next year’s budget, unlike previous attempts, would be prudent and responsible.
At this, the opposition was easily puzzled. ”This government continues to spend billions of dollars on wasteful purchases for fake lakes, untendered stealth fighter jets and Republican-style prisons that Canadians are convinced we do not really need,” moaned Liberal Bryon Wilfert. “How is putting $16 billion, and counting, at risk for the purchase of untendered stealth fighter jets, using the minister’s own words: ‘practical, pragmatic and moderate?’ Is he serious?”
Here then came Mr. Hawn, moved to lay bare the existential crisis at the heart of good governance. “Mr. Speaker, what we are very serious about is giving the Canadian men and women who carry out the very difficult missions on behalf of the people of Canada and others the very best equipment to do the job tomorrow and for the next 20, 30 and 40 years,” he said. “We do not know what is coming in the next 20, 30 or 40 years and neither does the member opposite.”
Indeed. Here is what every government must confront in directing its citizens forward. We do not know what may come, we cannot know what may come, but we must prepare for it all the same. We must make our best guesses and act decisively, but ultimately we can only imagine. And so we must push ourselves to consider every possibility, prepare ourselves for every eventuality and dream impossible dreams of every potential doom.
To understand why we might need $16-billion-worth of new fighter jets then, think not simply of Russians or exploding printer cartridges, but cast your mind even further forward to the threats of the future—to the time of 2050 and perhaps the most dire possibility of all: the looming spectre of alien invasion.
-
Is Randy Quaid abusing Canada’s refugee system?
By Jason Kirby, John Geddes, and Jamie J. Weinman - Friday, October 29, 2010 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments
Canada is the only country that processes refugee applications from the U.S.
Stuart Davis/MCT/Landov/ Darryl Dyck/CP
When actor Randy Quaid asked authorities in Vancouver for asylum last week, one day after his arrest in the city’s posh Kerrisdale neighbourhood on an outstanding U.S. warrant, he claimed he’d simply come here to accept a movie award and start a new life. Oh, and to escape a shadowy cabal of Hollywood assassins out to kill him and his wife, Evi. Quaid touched off a media frenzy as only a Hollywood actor on the lam suffering paranoid delusions can. But local movie reviewer Ian Caddell, a member of the Vancouver Film Critics Circle—which named Quaid best supporting actor in 2009 for his role in a little-known Canadian flick, Real Time—figured he should be prepared just in case. “We’re ready to print up an award certificate if he really wants to come and get it,” says Caddell. (The Oscar-nominated actor missed the ceremony, held in January of that year at a dimly lit pub atop a downtown 7-Eleven.) “If he comes, he comes. If not, it’s only five bucks.”
Caddell may be willing to give Quaid the benefit of the doubt, but there’s little sign the rest of the world is ready to be so understanding. The bizarre refugee ordeal is just the latest twist in the couple’s descent into apparent madness over the past couple of years. “What the hell happened to Randy Quaid?” a New York Post headline blared.
-
This Week: Good news/ Bad news
By macleans.ca - Friday, April 30, 2010 at 9:30 AM - 0 Comments
Plus a week in the life of Randy Quaid
Eric Gaillard/Reuters
Face of the week
A Thai protester chants anti-government slogans while wielding a photo of King Bhumibol AdulyadejA week in the life of Randy Quaid
Talk about legal trouble. On Friday, the actor filed a lawsuit alleging his former lawyer, Lloyd Braun, improperly used his access to Quaid to obtain photos and information, which he then posted on an Internet gossip site he owns. On Monday, Quaid and his wife, Evi, were arrested for failure to appear in court on charges stemming from an unpaid $10,000 tab at a California guest ranch. They were placed in pink handcuffs—a colour apparently intended to shame suspects.
