Neal Hall, Vancouver Sun
Published: Thursday, March 29, 2007

A 56-year-old Burnaby man accused of sex tourism crimes in three countries was granted bail today by Vancouver provincial court Judge Thomas Gove.

The judge set a number of bail conditions on Kenneth Robert Klassen: that he post a $50,000 surety, report regularly to his bail supervisor, not change his residence without a court order, not possess a video camera and not to be alone with a girl under the age of 18.

Klassen, an international art dealer who is married with three children, appeared in court dressed in an orange jail-issue sweatshirt and red pants.

He was arrested March 9 and charged with 35 sex tourism counts involving six underage Colombian girls, eight Cambodians and three in the Philippines.

It is alleged the girls were as young as nine years old. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison if convicted.

It is the first time in Canada that a person charged under the sex tourism law will go to trial, where the law may be challenged for the first time.
The previous case of a Vancouver man ended in a guilty plea. The law is intended to protect children in foreign countries from sexual exploitation by Canadians.

The 2.5-year investigation of Klassen began at Vancouver’s International Airport on Aug. 27, 2004, when officers with the Canada Border Service Agency identified a suspicious parcel that was labelled “quilts” but was found to contain undeclared DVDs containing child pornography and bestiality.

The parcel, destined for a home in Burnaby, was turned over to the RCMP for investigation. The parcel was monitored and was picked up by Klassen, who was then charged with possessing and importing child pornography.

He was ordered to surrender his passport.

Search warrants were subsequently executed on Klassen’s home at 7600-block of Suncrest Drive and at a rented Vancouver storage locker, where police seized a video camera and 21 DVDs allegedly containing video clips of Klassen having sex with 92 girls in three countries.

Sex tourism is defined by Canada’s Foreign Affairs department as “travel for the purpose of engaging in sexual conduct with children. In doing so, they take advantage of the poverty and powerlessness of foreign children, expecting to exploit weaknesses in law enforcement.”

Experts estimate that more than one million children are lured or sold into the sex trade each year. Many are forced into prostitution by their parents or by homelessness and poverty.