LAVAL, Que. -- The lawyer for a longtime Quebec resident facing deportation to his native Italy says Ottawa has granted his client a two-year stay.

Michele Torre had been given a new deportation order for Wednesday based on a 20-year-old criminal conviction.

The Immigration Department intervened in his favour Monday.

The now 64-year-old Torre was convicted in 1996 in a cocaine importation conspiracy linked to the Cotroni crime family and served part of a nearly nine-year prison sentence.

His lawyer, Stephane Handfield, says Torre will now be able to breathe easy for two years while immigration officials review the case for him to remain in Canada on humanitarian grounds.

Handfield says his client, who has lived in Canada for nearly 50 years, was relieved with Monday's development.

Since 2013, the Canadian government has sought to remove Torre from Canada for "serious criminality and organized criminality."

Handfield, supporters and family have argued it was unfair to deport him so long after his conviction.

On Sept. 16, Torre was 90 minutes away from being expelled from the country and already at the airport in Montreal when the federal government intervened.