9

Court file: T-2477-14

FEDERAL COURT
BETWEEi:
TIMOTHY ANDREW VAVILOV
Applicant
and

THE MINISTER OF CITIZENSHIP AND IMMIGRATION

Respondent
AFFIDAVIT OF TIMOTHY VAVILOV

I, Timothy Vavilov (Foley), of the City of Shanghai in the Country of China, MAKE OATH
AND SWEAR AS FOLLOWS:
1. I am the Applicant herein; as such I have personal knowledge of the matters hereinafier set out.
Where I rely on infonnation provided by others, I state the source of the information and believe
it to be true.
2. 1. was born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada on June 27, I990 In 2011, while living and studying in
London. England, I applied to renew my Canadian passport. I was informed by an officer at the
Canadian Consulate in London that I needed to receive a Citizenship Certificate before applying
for a new passport. I applied for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate by application dated
February 7, 2013. By letter dated August 7, 2013, I was informed by Canada Immigration that
they had reasonable grounds to believe that I was not entitled to a Citizenship Certificate as they
believed my parents had been working in Canada as employees of a foreign government at the
time of my birth and. 1, therefore, may not be a Canadian citizen. I was invited to respond to
their concerns. The following information was included in my submissions to Citizenship and
Immigration and was, therefore, before the official making a decision on my file:
a. I was born on June 27, 1990 in Toronto, Ontario. I was born as Timothy Andrew Foley and
I was born to Donald Heathfleld and Tracey Lee Ann Foley. I have one brother, Alexander
Vavilov, born Alexander Foley.
b

For the first fri e ears of my life, we Iri ed in Toionto On August 10, 1995 oui farnih
mcri ed to Fraice because of my fathers studies at lEcole hationa1e des Ponts et Chaussees
in Paris I was five yeais old and I attended elementary school ihere foi foui ears

On August 20, 1999, oui family moved to the Unitea States We nlo\ed beLause of my
fathcis cno11ment in the Han aid John F Kenned) School of Gocinment s Macteis in

their Public Adm

inistration program
. I completed prim
school in Boston, U
ary school, middle
SA and I began un
school and high
iversity studies at th
in Washington D.C.
e George Washing
ton University
d. Since my birth,
I have traveled an
a Canadian passpo
for a long time and
rt. Although I have
have obtained a pe
lived in the USA
rm
an
en
t residents Green
any nationality othe
r than Canadian un
Card, I have neve
r had
til the Russian au
2010. If Passport C
thorities issued me
anada had renewed
a
pa
ss
port in
my expired passport
to use the Canadia
in 2011, I would ha
n passport for all m
ve continued
y travels.
e, Every time I wou
ld travel and when
I lived in the USA
Canadian. I promot
, I would always in
ed the country to ne
troduce myself as
w
ac
qu
English and Fren
aintances. I speak
ch, fluently. I w
bo
th
national language
as even awarded
s,
Consulate in Bosto
the first prize fro
n for an artwork th
m the Canadian
at promoted Can
adian values of cu
ltural integration.
f. I briefly visite
d Canada with my
parents again in
returned to Canada
1999, Later, while
several times. I retu
living in the US,
rn
ed
to
I
Canada during roa
that typically lasted
d trips with my
about a week. W
friends
e would travel
Montreal because
by car or by bus fro
I had many friend
m the US to
s that studied at
These were recreatio
McGill and Conco
nal trips where we
rdia University.
were happy that
was lower than in th
the legal drinking
e US. I also made
age in Canada
a tiipto Vancouver
skiing in Whistler.
with my brother an
d parents to go
g. During my birth
day celebration on
June 27, 2010, m
arrested by the FB
y parents Donald
I in the US along w
and Tracey, wer
ith nine others w
e
working in the US.
ho
th
e
FB
I stated were illeg
1 was in a room up
al
st
ag
ai
ents
rs when the FBI
officers brought me
etitered our home.
downstairs and 1 w
O
ne
at
of
ch
the
ed
my parents get hand
separate cars. I was
cuffed and taken
shocked in ways w
away i.n
ords cannot describ
to remain in the ho
e. The FBI asked us
use while they sear
if
w
e
ched the house or
wanted
next morning at ar
if we wanted to go
ound 8 am, we re
to
a
ho
te
tu
l. The
rned to the house
disorder and all th
where we fhund
e electronic device
ev
er
yt
s
hi
an
ng in
d
personal memorab
of our bank accoun
ilia had been conf
ts were frozen and
iscated. All
we only had abou
ear radio followin
t S300 in casin It
g an initial court
w
as
on
ly
hearing that I foun
from the
along with 9 others
d but the reason w
were arrested,
hy my parents.
h. On July 8, 2010
, my parents admitt
ed that they were
to being Andrey B
Russian nationals.
ezrukov and my
My father admitted
mother admitted t
admitted that they w
being Elena Vavilo
ere foreign agents of
va. They also
Russia in the US.
When my parents
were arrested, I
was just 20 year
Washington Univers
s old and a stud
ity.
ent at the George
j. My brother. Alex,
and I left the US
for Russia on Ju
parents were in a
ly 5, 2010, before
US court on July 8
th
my parents. My
and media reports
indicate that they
left the US on

10

11
th
July 9
Before all the events surroundi
ng the arrest, we had a family
summer trip organized
in which we would tiavel to Tin
-key and Russia through Par
is. \Ve saw nothing strange
about the destinations since we
have traVeled extensively to
various countries in the pas
have visited ever 40 countries
t (1
). A few months earlier, I
had
applied for and received
Russian visa in my Canadian
a
passport to travel to Russia.
At the end of one. of my par
hearings, my mother quickly
ents
told us that my brother and
I sIould continue on the planne
trip alone. At the time this see
d
med like a good idea because
it would allow us to get aw
from the constant bother of me
ay
dia reporters stationed outsid
e our home and to try to rel
after terrible stress. After cha
ax
nging my brothers flight tick
et
(he
wa
s
sup
pos
early with my father the day of
ed to leave
the arrest) we left for Paris
where we spent a couple
before flying to Moscow.
of days

Ic, When we anived to Mosco

w, someone from the Russian
authorities met me and my bro
at the airport. Instead of going
ther
to the hotel we booked, we we
re driven to an apartment and
provided food. For the few day
s before our parents returned
to Moscow, one person who
was in charge of taking care of
my brother and I showed us
aro
und the city and took us to
museums.. We never had any
contact with anyone else fro
m
Ru
ssi
an goverunient agencies.
We also met my fathers mothe
r. Because she did not speak
English and because we did
speak Russian, commumeatio
not
n was very prim1t1e The
same remains today vh
although I have learned the bas
eie
ics of the Russian langua
ge, my conversations are ver
simple. During the entire time
y
I was in Russia, I have felt out
of place and a foreigner. I
not speak the language, makin
did
g friends was difficult; I wa
s not accustomed to the life
the food or the weather I tried eve
style.
rything I could to leave to ano
ther country
1. From September 21, 2011
to November 15, 2012, I res
ided in the United Kingdom
attended a Masters in Financ
where I
e program at die Cass Bu
siness School in London.
compIting my studies, and not
After
being able to secure a job in
the UK (largely because I
not ork without an additional
could
ork isa), I returned to Rissi
a where I briefly began to
work at a bank before moving
to Asia.

m My cunent name Timofey

Vavilov, takes my mothers
birth nane Timothy is the
.ersiou of the nane Timoth
Russian
y When I auplied for a new
Canadian passport, the Ca
authorities eplaLned that 1 fist iee
nadian
ded to amend my birth cer
name of my parenL
tifi
cat
e
to
ref
lec
t
the
birth
s (V ailov, or
Bezrukov my father s nam
e) and that I could not aetain
the name I had been using for
20 years I felt this was cry
strange and difficult to ada
because everyone I had kno
pt to
wn since my birth recognize
d me as Timothy Foley Be
forced to change my name wa
ing
s one of the hardest things
to bear as my name not onl
personal but 1 also held my
y felt
own history and achievement
s (all my diplomas and pre
work s in the name of T
tous
mothy Foley) I feel I hav
1
e lost touch with my previo
being foiceci to change my nam
us
self by
e s a result on December
12 2011, the conect names
birthdates of my paients a we
and
ll as m own name were am
end
ed
on
certificate. I started using the
my Canadian birth
name Tiinofey Vavilav since
that date..

12
I have held four Canadian passports. My first
passport was issued iii or around May 1991
and expired 5 years later in or atound May 1996
. My second passport was issued on May
10,
1996 and expired five years later in 2001. My third
passport was issued on May 4, 2001 and
expired on May 4, 2006. My last passport was
issued on ay 5, 2006 and expired on May
5,
2011. Although willing, I was urable to renew
rn passport after this date due to Passport
Canadas reluctance.
o. I applied for a renewed Canadian passport whil
e studying in London in 2011. The offic
er in
the Canadian Consulate told me that they have
a note in the file that I need to receive a
Citizenship Certificate before applying for
a new passport. At the request of the Cana
dian
Consulate in London, I returned my last expi
red passport while studying in the UK.
p. I applied for a Canadian Citizenship Certificate
by application dated February 7,20

13.

q. I am aware that there have been some media

reports that my parents were groorning
me
for espionage. I believe the Wall Street Jour
nal was the first to report this, on or abou
t
July
26, 2012, and the Globe and Mail also covered
it. These allegations are not true. It has been
stated by the FBI that for over 10 years my
home was bugged, however no evidence of.m
y
involvement has ever been presented.
r.

s.

The Wall Street Journal says that I had tried to

return to the US but could not because
of
unspecified obstacles. The Moscow Tim
es says that it is Russian authorities blocking
.my
return to the US to continue my sti,idies beca
use I know sensitive information of
my
parents activities. Those statements are false
. I wanted to complete my education at Geor
ge
Washinuton University because I only had
one year remaining and because of its
good
reputation. The only reason I was unable to retur
n to the US was because my parents legal
counsel in the US contacted American authoriti
es and got a response that if I entered the
US
I would be subject to detention and removal
procedures because my resident status wou
ld
most likely be revokei This would have mad
e continuing my studies in the US difficult.
I
do not have any knowledge of sensitive infor
mation related to my parents or their work
as
they have not divulged any information to me.
No Russian authorities have ever blocked
or
influenced any of my personal actions, or trave
l and they have no. right to do so.
When preparing my response to CICs beli
ef that I may no lie entitled to a Cana
dian
citizenship certificate, I applied for and received
part of my record through ATIP. In the
file
that I received from the ATIP office, I noticed that
my file had records that listed Islamabad
as a visa post. I have never been to or flown
through Pakistan and never dealt with anyo
ne
from that country that may have had the abili
ty to make an entry into this file. The date
of
this data entry is precisely one day before I
flew direct from Moscow to Paris for the 14
th
of
July (a Frenth national holiday> celebration with
some friends. I was stopped at the border
in Paris, questioned by local border guards and
released. I believe the Islamabad entry
was a
deliberate and illicit entry by some auflicrities
to ensure I would be questioned upon arriv
al
in Paris. I find it to be unjust and an abuse of pow
er by the responsible authority.

13
On March 19, 2014, 1 went to the Can
adian. Consulate in Shanghai, China
in order to swear
an affidavit in support of my respons
e to CICs belief that I may not
be entitled to a
citizenship certificate. Helen Jiang,
at the Canadian Consulate in Sha
nghai rethsed to
notarize my affidavit on the grounds
that I am not considered a Canadia
n citizen according
to the records in the system and that
the government did not specifically
request a notarized
aflidavi.t from me.
u. 1 am first and foremost Canadia
n. I have lived for 20 years believin
g that I was Canadian
and I still believe I am Canadian, not
hing can change that. I do not have
any attachment to
Russia, I do not speak the language,
I do not know many friends there, I
have not lived there
for any extended periods of time and
I do not want to live there. It has bee
n a huge shock to
me the way the Canadian governmen
t has tried to block me from obtaini
ng my rightful
citizenship. If I were to lose my Can
adian citizenship, I would feel lost
bec
aus
e it was the
only country 1 could associate with and
the only country I should be a citizen
of.
Losing the
citizenship would most surely guaran
tee that if I applied for a Canadian
visa
,
I
would be
rejected and therefore be exiled from
my home country a fate that
Socrates himself
considered worse than death.

v. I believe, based on the behavior of

the Canadian authorities with regard
s to my brother and
my own citizenship that the purpos
e of the inquiry is not to abide
by the laws in the
Citizenship Act, but rather to deny
us any attachment we have with Can
ada by stretching
the written law beyond its meanin
g and to tarnish our lives. in one
of the most serious
illustrations, we were indirectly not
ified by top officials of the Canadia
n Secret Services
that the fate of our citizenship was
pre-emptively decided and that the
re is no point of
continuing to pursue the citizenship cas
e because the decision not to grant
it has been made
in Canada at the top political level.
The representatives of the Canadia
n Secret Service
stated that if you continue, there
will be consequences for example,
a campaign to
publish damang information about
you in the press. I have a strong beli
ef that the reason
for the revocation is political and is
not something we can influence. Thi
s
is unacceptable
and unlawful.

vi. I would like to make a rem

inder that although I cover many
points which are related to my
life before and after the arrest of my
parents, the issue at hand is my
citizenship at birth.
Therefore, no event after June 27,
1990 should have any effect on my birt
hright. Only issues
related to my parents status and wor
k on that date should be decisive.
By decision dated November 5, 201
4, 1 was found to be not a Can
adian citizen and ray
application for a citizenship certificate
was refused.
My brother, Alex, has also been fou
nd that he is not entitled to Canadia
n citizenship; he is also
before this Court under court file T-1
976-14, which I rely on in support
of my application. Alex
had been issued a Canadian citizenship
certificate but, v;hen he applied for
a Canadian passport,
he was informed that he may not be
entitled to Canadian citizenship
and that his citizenship
certificate may be cancelled. At the req
uest of our counsel, our files wer
ejoined and we received

_________________________

14
extension of time to reply to the fairness letters until we had receive
d disclosure of our flIes
under the Access to Information Act.
5. Our. files were disclosed to our counsel on January 22, 2014 and
we provided submissions to the
Registrar of Citizenship on April 18, 2014. A decision was made
on Alexs file on August 15,
2014 recalling and cancelling his citizenship certificate.
6. After we received the decision on Alexs file, we made a new
request for a copy of our file
under the Access to Ii!fonnation Act. This request was dated Augus
t 28, 2014 and we requested
our complete file that post-dated what had been disclosed to us
in our earlier ATIP requests. The
final part of our file was disclosed to us by CD mailed on Novem
ber 6, 2014. However, the
documents related almost eatire-ly to my brother, Alex, and not
to me.
7. My counsel communicated his concern with the ATIP office and
was informed that, as our
request for a copy of our files was made a couple of months before
a decision was made on my
application, the ATIP file did not contain documents related
to the decision-maker on my file.
On December 5, 2014, my counsel made another request for
a copy of my file under the Access
to Information Act. My counsel received a copy of my file on
January 6, 2015. However, I
believe that the file disclosed is incomplete as the physical file
consists solely of a copy of the
decision on my application and proof that the decision was deliver
ed to my counsel by Canada
Post and the electronic file does not contain any notes from the
decision-maker who decided that
I am not a Canadian citizen.
8. The decision and reasons from the decision-maker, issued
to this Court under Rule 9 of the
Federal Court Rujeg. does not contain any reasons but consists solely
of a copy of the decision
letter.
9. All of the above-noted communication and documents are
being provided to this Court in an
affidavit from my counsels office, the Affidavi.t of Hannah
Lynch. I have reviewed that
affidavit and believe it to be true and correct.
10. 1 make this affidavit in support of the within application and
for no other or improper purpose.
SWORN BEFORE ME
In the City of
Intie ountryo
On this dav of Febniary, 2015.
Timothy (Ti.mofey) Vavilov
A Commissioner; etc.