VICTORIA -- A ship carrying nearly 500 migrants docked this morning at CFB Esquimalt near Victoria, sailing into a vigorous debate about how Canada should treat them.
The MV Sun Sea was intercepted off Vancouver Island on Thursday and boarded by Canadians from a flotilla of vessels, including the frigate HMCS Winnipeg. The ship became visible from land as it was entering Esquimalt harbour around 6:10 a.m. local time, shortly after sunrise. Several other vessels were moving near the ship, while members of Canada's Tamil community were on the shore with reporters.
"I'm quite surprised at the size of the ship," said Gary Anandasangaree, a lawyer with the Canadian Tamil Congress. "I was expecting it to be much larger given the number of people."
"It clearly gives us an idea of the type of conditions that could have been inside. Very cramped, given the size."
He said it was "quite a moving experience actually, when you see it coming to shore. I'm sure the anticipation for the people inside is that this is a new beginning."
It's believed that many of the 490 migrants aboard are from Sri Lanka.
A lawyer who represents many Sri Lankans who arrived the same way last year has said he's been told by family members of the MV Sun Sea migrants that women and several children are believed to be on board. Several are ill.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews has said some of those aboard are "human smugglers and terrorists" and he suggested there will be changes in Canada's laws to prevent future ships from arriving the same way.
"Let me be clear on this point: human smuggling, illegal migration or any other abuses of Canada's immigration system can not and will not be tolerated," he said. "As we deal with this current situation under Canadian law, Canadian officials will look at all available options to strengthen our laws in order to address this unacceptable abuse of international law and Canadian generosity."
As a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, Canada must process all refugee claimants who manage to reach Canadian soil. The B.C. Civil Liberties Association called on the federal government to respect the human rights of those aboard.
"Canada must also ensure that the mistakes made in the handling of many of the Tamil migrants arriving on the MV Ocean Lady last October not be repeated," the association said in a news release.
Last October, a vessel carrying 76 Sri Lankan Tamils arrived off the coast of Vancouver Island and was escorted to Victoria. All of those claimed refugee status, saying they were fleeing persecution from the Sinhalese government. They were originally detained in jails and most were soon released, but the Canadian Border Services Agency argued 25 potentially had links to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, a banned terrorist organization and separatist group that lost a 26-year civil war last year.
The agency wanted secret hearings to argue for their continued incarceration, but those hearings were abandoned and the agency never produced any evidence to support their suspicions. By this spring, all the migrants had been released.
"Canada's conduct with respect to last October's group of Tamil migrants is very troubling," said Robert Holmes, president of the civil liberties association. "Given that the government had no evidence showing that the refugees posed any danger to Canada, it is incredible that they were held in detention for months," said Holmes.
"Canada needs to ensure that the migrants now landing in British Columbia are not subjected to the same unjustified detentions."
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Van Isle
1 year ago
Vic Toews sure comes across
Vic Toews sure comes across as an idiot. Here is mouthing off about terrorists and people smugglers when those migrants were still onboard. That ship is certainly not a luxury yacht Mr. Toews. If I was a terrorist or a smuggler I would have opted out of coming to Canada on the MV Sun Sea and picked a healthier travel plan. I'm not suggesting that our border people shouldn't do their duty; I'm just saying that Mr. Toews should just keep his mouth shut until the facts are in. But being 'a tough guy' I guess he just couldn't help himself.
Sask Resident
1 year ago
Van Isle - Tigers on Board
Toews may sound like an idiot but he is repeating what the Canadian security and immigration bureaucrats are telling him. Of course the LTTE has some members on board on the idea to sneak a few in at a time. The rest on the boat will be too afraid for themselves and their families to identify the Tigers and tell the truth. As for deporting them, Sri Lanka doesn't want the Tigers back unless they can try them for war crimes.
alive
1 year ago
bending over backwards again
We now hear the comment that Canada cannot intercept a ship on international waters.
Right, but organizations like Greenpeace can harrass whalers on the open sea enough that they have to change course;
maybe we should ask Greenpeace to make immigrant ships head to the USA instead?
Can you guess how they would be treated there?
G West
1 year ago
Toews is hardly reliable on any question
He says what is politically expedient and he and Pee Wee will manipulate this issue and the refugees for whatever political advantage can be made of it.
Anyone who claims to know who is on this ship and what their background may be is lying.
Suffice to say, unless one is a full-blood First Nations Canadian, you or your ancestors came from somewhere else.
The attitude of this government and its supporters toward immigrants is not very different from that of Tea-Party Americans.
Toews himself has little credibility as a Canadian avatar.
In fact, he's an immigrant himself: A Mennonite who was born in Paraguay and immigrated with his family; he thinks protesters outside abortion facilities are just fine and he's a long-time opponent of same sex marriage.
Why would anyone have more than a moment's time for the man and what he believes in.
Van Isle
1 year ago
Hey Sask Resident, if you
Hey Sask Resident, if you just spend a little time and study what has happened in that sorry little place called Sri Lanka over the last 40 years or so, then it's not all black'n'white, if ya catch my drift. The behaviour of that Government hasn't been squeeky clean. It has been suggested that the government is doing some ethnic cleansing on the Tamils and there were some videos that showed up in Great Britian last year that supported that idea.
realisticman
1 year ago
The Hate
"I would have opted out of coming to Canada on the MV Sun Sea and picked a healthier travel plan." Oh yeah VanIsle. How would you have come? Jet from Colombo through Heathrow? Do you know about having 'papers' to board aircraft? No, I guess not.
The left-wing Labour Government of Australia refused this ship entry into it's waters, so the ship put-putted on, past the USA, which would let it in in a million years, and on to Canada. Canada escorts the ship to shore and transports those in need to hospital, houses the rest. The left-nutters on-line as well as Dr. Keith Martin of the federal Liberal Party turn this into slurs on the Conservative government and play politics with these sad, exhausted people.
What a disgusting yet enlightening introduction to Canada. To be used as a pawn in a hate political game by the opposition political parties and its supporters.
No matter. The Tamils that settle here will remember which party was in power at the time of their arrival on land after months adrift. They will also remember how gracious their welcome was.
DJT
1 year ago
I bet the bad guys are just terrified.....
Toews "suggested there will be changes in Canada's laws to prevent future ships from arriving the same way". Ooooh, I bet the bad guys are shakin' in their boots. Due to our soft response and the fact we are suckers, you can expect these ships will be arriving one after the other. We can't/ don't look after our own kids and seniors properly but are laying out money hand over fist for this type of stuff. Fire a couple of shots over the bow and turn them around. Period.
North of Hope
1 year ago
My ancestors
My ancestors came to this country because they were kicked out of their own - "The Clearences" in Scotland. The clan chiefs didn't give a damn for my ancestors, they just wanted the land we lived on to raise sheep.
These people should be accepted into Canada. They will help our economy grow as they will help consume and produce . (Please no comments to me to justify this,, its just that they will be here and become part of of society and therefore our economy.)
alive
1 year ago
yeah right
LOL they will consume allright!
And then as soon as possible they will disappear across the border, leaving us with all the expenses
dorothy
1 year ago
Enough
"The Tamils that settle here will remember which party was in power at the time of their arrival on land after months adrift. They will also remember how gracious their welcome was."
Yeah, we all know that's the main reason why those in power wants them. It's always been the custom of tyrants, when their own population became un-cooperative, to import outsiders to keep them in place. Maybe the Tigers will go work for CSIS, just as former SS officers were employed by intelligences everywhere, knowing the trade so well.
There is no great mystery in why things are screwed in Sri Lanka. It is among the most densely populated places in the World, while Canada is among the thinnest.
And why do we have to hear this sorry nonsense that 'they are going to help our economy grow'? On what substrate, por favor? There will be no more resources magically coming out of the Earth or pushing up through the soil, because we load more human bodies on it! It is ironic that this article is placed next to one that concerns water restrictions! We have just apologized to the Natives for our ancestors being so rough in making room for themselves here. Now in the next breath, we compound the felony. Don't think they're not watching us.
The people who come sailing without being invited are from a place where the simple solution to sustainability and peace, putting a cork in it, has only just touched the ground! How long and to what extent are we going to be the suckers that mop up after other people's foibles?
Van Isle
1 year ago
If people think we got it
If people think we got it bad here in Canada maybe they should check out what is happening in Europe with illegal immigrants. Here we have a trickle, over there it's a flood and its not letting up and they come from all points of the compass.
alive
1 year ago
Economic refugees?
"Refugees" who arrived on the last ship here, allegedly paid up to $65.000 each for the trip.
Considering where they come from that is a lot of money, hardly an amount that an average citizen could scrape together.
Perhaps what we see here are "economic refugees" just like we saw the rich flee Honk Kong years ago and settle in here, flaunting their money?
I have no pity on anyone who gets rich on other peoples labour, let them rot on that ship!