VANCOUVER, Canada (AFP) — A Canadian facing charges of child sex crimes against young boys in Thailand will remain in jail here until November 8, a court decided Friday.
Teacher Orville Frank Mader, 54, was arrested when he arrived at this western Canadian metropolis Thursday on a flight from Japan, said police.
He had been the subject of a manhunt in Thailand, where he is accused of abusing at least three young boys.
Mader is the second Canadian recently accused of sex crimes in Thailand. In October, Bangkok police arrested Christopher Neil, who is accused of sex crimes in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Mader did not apply for bail, and he has not been convicted of previous crime in Canada, police constable Annie Linteau told AFP.
She said Mader is held under a Canadian peace bond "used if there's reason to fear that this person may commit a sexual offence against a person under the age of 14 here in Canada."
A judge will hear arguments next week on whether Mader will be released under conditions, which typically include confiscation of a passport, prohibition from travelling or being near children.
Thailand is expected to formally ask Canada to extradite Mader, but for more than a decade, all extraditions to Thailand have been stalled in Canadian courts.
Canada could choose to investigate the Thai allegations against Mader and prosecute him in Canada under a sex-tourism law, said law professor Benjamin Perrin of the University of British Columbia, who specializes in child sex tourism and human trafficking issues.
But Perrin said while that law has been on the books for 10 years, "there's been only one conviction."
Canada is "arguably amongst the worst in preventing pedophiles from exploiting children abroad," charged Perrin, a former advisor to Canada's immigration minister and the founder of Future Group, an international organization that battles human trafficking and child sex tourism.
Perrin said that unlike other developed nations, Canada has no dedicated police officers to investigate overseas sex crimes, and noted Canada does not restrict travel by people accused of child sex crimes.
"We have continued to renew passports of individuals who are under the cloud of these serious allegations," he said, noting that Mader had also been connected with sex crimes in Cambodia several years ago.
Government figures show there are 110 Canadians "being investigated or charged overseas for abusing children, and that's just the tip of the iceberg," said Perrin.
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