A House of Commons committee on Thursday investigated how an admitted smuggler received a new Canadian passport through Service Canada after being forced to surrender his previous travel documents under court-imposed conditions of release. It was decided to investigate.
The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration heard testimony from Immigration Minister Mark Miller, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, passport officers, RCMP representatives, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and officials on this issue. They agreed to hold a two-day public hearing. In cooperation with Public Safety Canada.
“If the Liberal government cannot get the basics right, it raises some very serious questions. ‘Again,’ said Tory immigration critic Tom Kmiec, who tabled the motion to hold the hearing.
Thesingarasan Rathia, a recognized smuggler, was arrested in April 2021 after being charged with arranging the smuggling of Sri Lankans from the United States to Canada via Cornwall, Ontario, and ordered to surrender his passport. and was prohibited from applying for new travel documents.
The passport ban was one of several conditions of release, which also included an order requiring him to wear an ankle bracelet for monitoring purposes.
Smuggling networks linked to river deaths
Investigators with the Police Border Force discovered that Lasaia had obtained a new passport after executing a search warrant at his Montreal home in June 2023.
By the time of the raid, police believed Lasaia was suspected of leading a human smuggling network linked to the drownings of nine people in the St. Lawrence River in March 2023.
The dead included four family members from India, four family members from Romania (including infants and toddlers), and a man operating a boat smuggling people into the United States.
Liberal MP Chris Bittle said the committee’s support of the Conservative motion was an example of “how Parliament should work”. He said the passport case had exposed “serious flaws” that required greater scrutiny.
“At what level did this information not reach Canadian Passport?” he asked. “Where and at what level did this break?”
NDP immigration critic Jenny Kwan said she wants to examine what responsibility the court system has in this situation.
“Court decisions on travel documents actually come from the courts, not from Canadian Passport or IRCC (Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Canada), so there is no real truth to the failures of the system. I have doubts,” Kwan said.
Passport processing independent of police and court systems
No date has been set for the public hearing, but the hearing must be held by Dec. 18, according to the adopted motion.
Immigration Secretary Mark Miller’s office said in an emailed statement that it would not “speculate on possible future admissions.” In a statement, the minister said he would ask authorities to investigate the matter and would release any findings “if there is any updated information to share.”
Experts say passport officers perform superficial checks on applications, a process that takes place in silos separate from police and court databases and systems.
Service Canada administers the passport program on behalf of IRCC.
Border Force member and former Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Detective Sergeant Matt Eamer told CBC News that Lasaia continued to operate the alleged human smuggling network while at his home under the terms of the April 2021 incident. It is believed that the facility continued to operate.
Lasaia was awaiting sentencing after pleading guilty to a human smuggling case in April 2021 when police discovered a new passport at his home. The passport was issued on April 11, 2023 and was valid for 10 years.
The Border Task Force, which includes members of the RCMP, OPP and CBSA, arrested Mr. Lasaia for violating conditions during a raid in June 2023. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in September 2023 for the April 2021 human smuggling case.
Lasaia was rearrested in May and charged with multiple human smuggling-related offenses along with eight other accomplices. RCMP said at a press conference in June that Lasaia is suspected of leading an international human smuggling network that smuggled hundreds of people north and south across the Canada-U.S. border.
Lasaia remains in custody and has a bail hearing scheduled for November 27th and 28th in Morrisburg, Ont.
