TORONTO — A Filipino woman who helped shelter former NSA contractor Edward Snowden when he fled to Hong Kong has been granted refugee status in Canada. Lawyer Robert Tibbo said that his client Vanessa Rodel and her daughter Keana would arrive in Canada on Monday. Tibbo represented Rodel as she sought asylum in Hong Kong in 2013 due to an alleged kidnap and rape by militants in her homeland. Tibbo said Hong Kong rejected Rodel’s asylum request and since then officials there have grilled her over her contacts with Snowden, who now lives in exile in Russia. Tibbo and a nonprofit group called For the Refugees wants Canada to accept five others who helped Snowden.

Source: Washington Post March 25, 2019 20:58 UTC