Jones: The day begins for Randy and Evi Quaid inside Hearing Room 1 at the Immigration and Refugee Board. The room is windowless. There is a small clock on one wall. It’s a few minutes after ten. A Canadian flag hangs in the corner, a coat of arms mounted beside it. Acoustic-tile ceiling. Florescent lights.
Randy Quaid sits beside his lawyer, Catherine Sas, her leopard-skin coat draped over her chair. It’s November 23, and it’s cold today in Vancouver, white mountains rising in the near-distance. Quaid has left his puffy red parka in his car, parked outside. A Prius. Inside with it, there’s a box of proof, carried everywhere they go, just in case. Texas, California, Washington, British Columbia. Flow charts. Circles, arrows, names — underscored, crossed out — photographs. Satellite images. A litany of slights and wrongs, and a bag containing $8 million in photocopied checks.
The Quaids claim they brought their box with them over the border in October, after they were charged in California with felony vandalism. (They had allegedly been squatting in their former home and tore down a children’s play structure to fortify their makeshift compound.) Warrants were issued for their arrest, and they were picked up in an upscale Vancouver shopping area. The Quaids immediately sought refugee status in Canada. They claimed they were being hunted by a sinister band of celebrity killers: Star Whackers, they called them.
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