CBSA thought he might be a Chinese spy. A federal judge called the intelligence 'dubious'

The federal government denied a 68-year-old Chinese citizen permanent residency last year after arguing he had trained Chinese spies — and might be one himself.

But a recent Federal Court ruling says the information the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) used in its assessment of Liping Geng's past was "dubious" and "overreaching," raising questions about the credibility of CBSA's intelligence wing.

A Federal Court judge has now quashed the CBSA's decision in the case of Liping Geng and has ordered another immigration officer to review his case.

Geng taught English at a school in China that — as Federal Court Justice Richard Mosley wrote in a June 2 decision — trained linguists employed by the signals intelligence wing of China's People's Liberation Army (PLA), known as the third department or "3/PLA."

According to Mosley's ruling, he was tasked with sifting through intelligence analyses to determine whether Geng's work teaching English to students — some of whom may have been employed by one of China's spy agencies — meant he was a member of an organization that "that there are reasonable grounds to believe engages, has engaged or will engage in acts of espionage against Canada, or that is contrary to Canada's interests."

"There is obviously a lot of importance in making these types of decisions and assessments, to protect the safety of Canada and Canadians and anyone who's in Canada," said Geng's lawyer Athena Portokalidis

"But I think that has to be balanced with making these findings based on credible and reasonable evidence."

According to the statement of agreed-upon facts tabled before the Federal Court, Geng was a member of the People's Liberation Army as a young man. While serving, he obtained the equivalent of a Bachelor's degree in Chinese, English, mathematics and current events from the Luoyang Foreign Languages Institutes [LFLI].

He went on to work as a teacher and assistant lecturer in English at the institute from 1975 to 1987.

According to the statement of facts, Geng was allowed to come and go into Canada for a time, and once even held citizenship.

In 1989 he was accepted at the University of Toronto, where he studied for nine years and completed a PhD in English literature before teaching the subject at both the U of T and Memorial University in Newfoundland and Labrador.

He became a Canadian citizen in 1995, says the statement of facts. Deciding his full-time employment prospects were better in China, Geng returned in 2007 and renounced his Canadian citizenship (China does not recognize dual citizenship).

Geng still received visas to return to Canada every year to visit his family — including a ten-year multiple entry visa.

Things got complicated for him when, after his retirement in 2019, his wife applied to sponsor him for permanent residence so he could reunite with the family.