Canadian Court slams release of "Ocean Lady" migrant
The Federal Court of Canada has rebuked the Immigration and Refugee
Board for putting the rights of a foreign national being investigated
for possible links to a terrorist group above the protection of
Canadians.
The sternly worded court ruling overturns the IRB's release of one of
76 Tamil migrants fleeing the Sri Lankan war who arrived off the West
Coast in October aboard the "Ocean Lady" before the government could
finish investigating any links to the Tigers, saying the IRB
"effectively usurped" the government's role of probing security
threats."While the importance of not unduly detaining such persons
cannot be forgotten, the protection of Canadians and Canada's pressing
interest in securing its borders are also worthy considerations," wrote
Justice Robert L. Barnes in his ruling released this week.
While the government cannot use the Immigration and Refugee
Protection Act (IRPA) to detain a foreign national indefinitely, "it is
entitled to a reasonable time to complete its admissibility
investigation," he wrote.
The case assessed for the first time the power of the IRB to dismiss
government suspicion of migrants for security reasons and found it was
"misconstruing the scope of its authority."
The migrant, who cannot be identified by order of the court, was
among those found aboard a ship intercepted off the coast of Vancouver
Island on Oct. 17. All were detained under IRPA until their
admissibility to Canada was determined - particularly while the
Government investigated if any are members of the Liberation Tigers of
Tamil Eelam (LTTE), an outlawed terrorist group under Canadian law.At a
detention review on Nov. 5, an adjudicator for the IRB agreed his
detention was justified while the investigation was under way.
Another detention hearing, as required by law, was convened on Dec.
9, at which IRB adjudicator Otto Nupponen ordered the man's release.Mr.
Nupponen accepted the government's evidence that the "Ocean Lady" was,
in fact, a ship named Princess Easwary that "possibly was an LTTE-controlled
ship;" that there were likely "several" LTTE members among the
passengers; "traces of several explosives" had been found on board; and
the clothing of two passengers also tested positive for explosives.
(National Post, Canada)
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