Judge sides with man facing possible deportation to Italy over alleged organized crime ties in Ontario

A Canada Border Services Agency uniform is seen at the CBSA Lansdowne port of entry in Lansdowne, Ont., on Wednesday, Feb. 12, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Spencer Colby

A hearing to determine whether a man arrested in an OPP organized crime probe should be sent back to Italy will not proceed after a federal court judge ruled that the reasons for the decision were “unreasonable.”

In his written findings released last month, Justice John Norris set aside a decision made back in 2023 by a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety, referring 62-year-old Giorgio Campagna for an admissibility hearing with the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada.

According to court documents, Campagna, who has been a permanent resident of Canada since the age 5 but never obtained citizenship, was one of 28 people arrested back in 2019 in connection with Project Hobart, an OPP probe that investigators previously said targeted “a lucrative online and traditional gaming enterprise involving members of known organized crime groups,” including the Hells Angels.

At the time, police said the project had specifically targeted four known or prospective members of the Hells Angels, including Robert Barletta, Eugenio “Gino” Reda, Raffaele Simonelli, and Craig McIlquham, who was killed last month in a deadly shooting outside a Burlington restaurant.

An illegal gaming house operating in a cafe in Mississauga, located at 680 Silver Creek Blvd., had been part of the Project Hobart investigation and seven gaming machines were seized during a search of the cafe back in December 2019.

According to an agreed statement of facts referenced in the court documents, between March and October 2019, Campagna was responsible for collecting cash from those machines, and on some occasions, counting proceeds from the machines with others. The facts also state that investigators believed he collected about 20 per cent of the proceeds for himself.

Police initially charged Campagna with three counts of bookmaking and one count of commission of an offence for a criminal organization. The court documents indicated that Campagna subsequently pleaded guilty in 2021 to the summary charge of knowingly permitting a place to be used for the purpose of a common gaming house. The other charges previously filed by the Crown were withdrawn.

Campagna received a conditional discharge and was placed on probation for one year, a period he completed without incident in March 2022, Norris wrote in his findings.

Less than a year after he completed his probation, the court documents stated that Campagna was notified by the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) that a report had been prepared under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that stated there were “reasonable grounds to believe that he is inadmissible” on the basis of “organized criminality,” specifically for engaging in an illegal gaming enterprise.

According to the court documents, Campagna subsequently hired legal counsel who provided “comprehensive submissions and supporting evidence” as to why “an order for his removal from Canada should not be sought.”

The submissions explained that Campagna has lived in Canada for nearly his entire life and cares for his elderly mother, who has been diagnosed with dementia. They noted that his entire immediate family resides in Canada, including his common law partner of 40 years, his brother and sister, his two sons, and his three grandchildren.

It added that he is currently being treated for serious medical conditions, including diabetes, and has suffered two heart attacks and a stroke. Campagna has no friends or family in Italy, according to the submissions, and cannot speak or read the language.

The submissions go on to note that Campagna was found guilty of a “relatively minor offence” and is “deeply remorseful for his involvement in the activities that led to the criminal charges.”

Despite the reasons provided, a delegate for the Minister of Public Safety referred the matter for an admissibility hearing.

“The seriousness of the allegations against him and the interests of the Canadian public far outweigh the potential difficulties which may arise should Mr. Campagna be removed from Canada,” the delegate wrote in 2023.

‘Guilt by association’

But Norris said that he believes the delegate’s decision was “unreasonable in two key respects,” including the “assessment of the applicant’s criminality” and “the assessment of the applicant’s personal circumstances.”

“The delegate unreasonably elevated the applicant’s role in the organization of which he is alleged to be a member in determining that, in all the circumstances, a referral for an admissibility hearing was warranted,” the judge wrote.

He noted that the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) decision makers “went well beyond anything set out expressly or impliedly in the applicant’s guilty plea or the agreed statement of facts.”

“While the CBSA decision makers are not precluded from doing so, to be reasonable, any such findings must be supported by transparent, intelligible, and justified reasons grounded in the information before the decision maker,” Norris wrote.

“Instead, the reasoning process appears to be nothing but guilt by association, where the seriousness of the applicant’s conduct is determined with reference to any and all of the harms caused by illegal gaming and organized crime, and without any meaningful consideration of the applicant’s actual involvement.”

Norris added that the delegate’s decision was “flawed in two respects” when it came to apprehending Campagna’s “personal circumstances.”

“The delegate states that there is nothing before him to indicate that the applicant would be unable to communicate in Italy. However, the applicant said exactly this in his submissions and in his supporting evidence. The issue of the applicant’s language abilities has a direct bearing on the hardship he would face if removed to Italy,” Norris wrote.

He added that the impact to Campagna’s health was also not properly addressed, calling the “reasonableness of the decision into question.”

“The Minister’s delegate concluded that the applicant had not established that he would be unable to receive treatment, care and support for his medical conditions if he were to be removed to Italy,” Norris wrote.

“In so concluding, the delegate failed to engage with a critical point advanced by the applicant: that disrupting the continuity of his care in Canada would materially affect the quality of care he would receive for several serious medical conditions.”

Norris ruled that the Campagna’s application for judicial review will be allowed and the decision of the Minister’s delegate “will be set aside” so the matter can be dealt with by a different decision maker.