Maimed for love
Mar 10, 2005
A Los Angeles man who sneaked into Canada in February to see his Internet girlfriend will be deported minus
A Los Angeles man who sneaked into Canada in February to see his Internet girlfriend will be deported minus all his fingers and some of his toes.
Charles Gonsoulin, 41, will have his fingers and toes amputated because of severe frostbite suffered during a 100-hour trek from Pembina, North Dakota, across the border to Emerson, Manitoba, where he was found wandering on a golf course on Feb 23, suffering from hypothermia.
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,†Gonsoulin was quoted as saying. “It was all worth it for me. It is the difference between sitting around dreaming about things and going out and getting them.â€
Gonsoulin and the Canadian woman met in an Internet chat room in 2002. The woman lives in Quebec, Gonsoulin’s lawyer, Mike Cook, told a court hearing. Quebec is about 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Manitoba.
Gonsoulin could not enter Canada legally because he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in Arkansas in 1984. His girlfriend could not afford to travel to Los Angeles, so he took a bus to North Dakota where he crossed the border.
Reuter
Charles Gonsoulin, 41, will have his fingers and toes amputated because of severe frostbite suffered during a 100-hour trek from Pembina, North Dakota, across the border to Emerson, Manitoba, where he was found wandering on a golf course on Feb 23, suffering from hypothermia.
“It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all,†Gonsoulin was quoted as saying. “It was all worth it for me. It is the difference between sitting around dreaming about things and going out and getting them.â€
Gonsoulin and the Canadian woman met in an Internet chat room in 2002. The woman lives in Quebec, Gonsoulin’s lawyer, Mike Cook, told a court hearing. Quebec is about 2,500 kilometers (1,600 miles) east of Manitoba.
Gonsoulin could not enter Canada legally because he was convicted of robbing a Pizza Hut in Arkansas in 1984. His girlfriend could not afford to travel to Los Angeles, so he took a bus to North Dakota where he crossed the border.
Reuter