The detention of more than 300 Tamil migrants who landed on Vancouver Island last summer aboard a rusty Thai cargo ship called the MV Sun Sea has so far cost $18-million, the Canada Border Services Agency says. With 107 of the Tamils still in custody—and only five so far publicly linked to accusations of even indirect links to Tamil Tiger fighters in Sri Lanka—the high cost for the mass detention has prompted opposition MPs to renew calls on Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s (Calgary-Southwest, Alta.) government to withdraw a controversial bill it claims will counter human smuggling.
By BRYN WEESE, Parliamentary Bureau, Feb. 11, 2011
OTTAWA — Women’s shelters are no longer off-limits to immigration officers looking to round up and deport people hiding out in Canada illegally, QMI Agency has learned. But don’t worry, SWAT teams won’t be kicking doors down any time soon. Effective Friday, a new policy allows Canada Border Services Agency immigration officers to enter shelters, if warranted and approved by the agency’s top brass, to pick up illegal immigrants avoiding deportation.
A Haitian man who was among the first U.S deportees back to the country since last year’s catastrophic earthquake has died after leaving a crowded Haitian detention center suffering from cholera-like symptoms. The case has stoked immigrant rights advocates’ worst fears that the decision by federal U.S. immigration officials to resume deportations to the country while it limps toward recovering from the earthquake and battles a cholera epidemic and political upheaval could prove deadly for some Haitian nationals.
Mohamed Harkat, a refugee in Canada, was arrested in 2002 and detained for four years without charge. He was then released under the toughest bail conditions in Canada’s history. He was under an immigration law know as a Security Certificate, meaning he could be held indefinitely without charge, and all evidence against him can be kept secret. A special detention center was built after 9/11 to house the men accused under Security Certificates, earning the nickname “Guantanamo North”. Lia Tarachansky talks to Mohamed and his wife Sophie Harkat as well as their lawyer Matthew Webber, about the recent concluding ruling in their case and what it means if he will be deported.
After 12 years, Kenyan Steve Onyango has been told he’s no longer welcome in Canada, after his wife, and sponsor, died three years ago. Onyango owns a home in Windsor and works as a parking enforcement officer, yet he may have to leave the life he’s built if government officials get their way.
