Longshoreman with criminal brothers denied Vancouver waterfront security clearance

VANCOUVER — A B.C. longshoreman with two brothers who have been convicted of drug smuggling in the U.S. has lost his bid to get security clearance for the Vancouver waterfront.

Arun Randhawa challenged a Transport Canada decision to deny him the special clearance because of the organized-crime links of his brothers, both of whom are also longshoremen.

But the Federal Court of Canada ruled against Randhawa, saying the government’s decision to deny his security clearance was reasonable.

Judge René Leblanc said Randhawa’s brothers, Alexie and Alvin, were involved in “serious criminal activities” relevant “to the security of marine transportation.”

Alexie was arrested in California in 2008 with 107 kilograms of cocaine. He served four years of a five-year sentence before returning to Canada and his job as a Vancouver longshoreman in November 2012.

Alvin pleaded guilty in New York state last August to conspiracy to export cocaine from the U.S. from July 2010 until May 2011. His sentencing hearing has been adjourned until July 26.

Arun Randhawa argued in Federal Court that he has had minimal contact with his brothers and is a law-abiding citizen with no criminal record.

“He says that he did not choose his family and that there is nothing he can do, legally, to dissociate himself from his brothers,” Leblanc noted.

But Leblanc said “that because of his association to his brothers, there were reasonable grounds to suspect that there is a risk … that [Arun] be suborned to commit an act or to assist or abet any person to commit an act that might constitute a risk to marine transportation.”

Leblanc said that Randhawa was aware of his brothers’ criminality and that both lived in the family home with him until their arrests.