Former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov, left, and MP Peter Julian talk with reporters in a Vancouver church on Tuesday. (CBC)

The federal government is stalling when it comes to releasing critical documents about former KGB agent Mikhail Lennikov, a British Columbia MP charged Tuesday.

Peter Julian, NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, and Lennikov held a joint news conference in Vancouver's First Lutheran Church Tuesday, where Lennikov has stayed since June 2, when he sought sanctuary to avoid deportation to Russia.

On June 1, a Federal Court judge upheld a decision by federal Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan that as a former foreign espionage agent, Lennikov could not remain in Canada.

Lennikov's wife and son were granted permanent residency in March on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, but Lennikov's bid to stay failed and he was given a removal order to leave the country by June 3.

Julian said formal access to information requests have been made to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), the Canadian Border Service Agency (CBSA) and the RCMP in June. So far, only the RCMP provided information, he said, and even they withheld most of what they have.

"The information obtained from the RCMP is heavily censored. The RCMP's inadequate response to a very legitimate and important request is appalling," Julian said.

The MP is filing a complaint with the federal privacy commissioner, Jennifer Stoddart. Both CSIS and the CBSA have requested an extension, Julian said.

While Van Loan wrote in a memo earlier this year that "it would be detrimental to the national interest" to allow Lennikov to stay in Canada, Julian said he believes the federal government does not have any evidence against the Russian immigrant.

"There has been nothing to substantiate the government's claim. That is why they have tried essentially get by the issue by saying, 'Well, that is a national security concern,' " he said.

Lennikov told reporters the last three months have been difficult.

"I saw my family, especially my wife, struggling a lot with the reality that, even though we all in Canada, all in Lower Mainland, but we are not together as a family. So to hear her coming home from work and again realizing that I am not there, it's taking a very difficult toll on her, affects her emotional well-being a lot, which affects the whole members of family," Lennikov said.

Lennikov and his wife came to Canada as students in 1997. Now, he said, his wife works with a Vancouver insurance company and his son has applied to Vancouver Community College.

Next week, the Federal Court is scheduled to hear a judicial review of Van Loan's refusal to overturn the deportation order.