Lawyer tells hearing Sun Sea Tamils weren't smuggled into Canada
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[quote]Contrary to the government's repeated assertions, the arrival last summer of 492 Tamils aboard the MV Sun Sea was not part of a human smuggling operation, a lawyer for one of the migrants said Friday.
In a rare appearance before the Immigration and Refugee Board, Rod Holloway, managing lawyer of appeals at the Legal Services Society of BC, said smuggling is defined, in part, as "clandestine entry" into a country.
Holloway agreed that the Sun Sea's arrival was part of a complex, well-organized and likely profitable operation, but "the intention appears to have been to bring the ship to Canada and report to a port of entry, not to enter Canada clandestinely."
He played a television report from around the time of the ship's arrival that suggested the passengers were happy to be met by Canadian authorities.
"The intention was to come and make refugee claims," he said. "I suggest to you there's no human smuggling in this case."
The argument — which starkly contrasted the narrative that the government has been arguing for months — was heard at an admissibility hearing for a migrant who, the Canada Border Services Agency alleges, was a member of the ship's 12-man crew and engaged in people smuggling.
If the board finds the allegation to be true he could be deported.
Kenny Nicolaou, the CBSA representative seeking deportation, said the Sun Sea's arrival was the conclusion of a large, sophisticated and for-profit smuggling operation and that the crew was an extension of that operation.
He said that the man was among the first to board the ship, slept in a cabin apart from the cramped quarters of the regular passengers, and had a pre-determined role on the ship — to help in the engine room.
While he may not have been one of the operation's masterminds, he knowingly and actively participated in facilitating the "illegal journey" to Canada, Nicolaou said.
"The MV Sun Sea could not have been planned, organized and completed if the organizers hadn't set up the appropriate people to get it from point a to point b."
But Holloway said his client's role was to monitor the engine room's gauges — "hardly instrumental."
The cabin he slept in was later filled up with several other migrants.
Holloway added that there was no evidence his client received any benefits from the agent-organizers of the operation and that everyone on the ship was in the same situation.
"What has happened in this case is not smuggling and the people should not be denied access to the refugee process when they came here in good faith and broke no law."
The immigration adjudicator reserved a decision to review the evidence.
So far, two of the Sun Sea migrants have been ordered deported after the board determined they were members of the banned Tamil Tigers terrorist organization.
Fewer than 30 Tamil migrants remain in custody.
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[url=http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Lawyer+tells+hearing+Tamils+weren+smuggled+into+Canada/4625122/story.html]**SOURCE**[/url]
He must be paid well to try and use that bullshit excuse.
That's like the time the lawyer tried to pass a motion of "boys will be boys" in defense of the three teenagers who gang raped a younger girl.
When you can't solve it with a rational answer, throw 'em for a loop.
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