The federal government has issued the admitted smuggler a new passport after he was ordered to hand over his travel documents as part of court-imposed conditions of release, CBC News has learned.
According to court records obtained by CBC News, the new passports were discovered at Thesingarasan Rathia’s Montreal home in June 2023 during an investigation targeting an international human smuggling network allegedly led by him. It was discovered by RCMP investigators who executed a search warrant.
At the time, Lasaia was wearing an electronic bracelet on her ankle in harsh conditions while awaiting sentencing on a February 2023 guilty plea to a charge of violating the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act involving the smuggling of Sri Lankan nationals from Sri Lanka. He was living at home with a . From the US to Canada in 2021.
Lasaia was given a passport to the RCMP in 2021 as part of the terms of his release in connection with a human smuggling attempt busted by police in Cornwall, Ont., about 120 kilometers west of Montreal along the Canada-U.S. border. was forced to hand over the
Lasia was also prohibited from applying for new travel documents.
Smuggling activities leading to deaths
Lasaia was charged on April 1, 2021, after he was caught hosting a Sri Lankan national who had just been smuggled into Canada in the parking lot of a Cornwall motel. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in September 2023.
He was rearrested by RCMP in May on suspicion of leading an international human smuggling ring that moved hundreds of people north and south across the Canada-U.S. border. He remains in custody.
Investigators from the Cornwall Regional Task Force, which includes officers from the RCMP, Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), also investigated the deaths of nine people in the St. Lawrence River in late March 2023. He pointed out the relationship with the organization. Two families, one Indian and one Romanian, drowned along with their boatman in a rough river while trying to enter the United States.
A new passport seized by RCMP during a search of Lasaia’s home in 2023 was taken on April 2023, less than two weeks after the eight bodies were pulled from the river, according to copies of documents filed in Ontario court. Published by Service Canada on March 11th. of justice.
Former OPP Detective Sergeant Matthew Eamer, from the Cornwall Regional Task Force, continues to organize smuggling across the Canada-U.S. border while Mr. Lasaia awaits sentencing for his conditional 2021 human smuggling plea. He said he continued.
“Even though he was released on the same charges, he was still operating,” said Eamer, who retired in May and spent three years investigating Lasaia’s activities.
Conservative Party critic for immigration, refugees and citizenship, Tom Kmiec, told CBC News he wants the House of Commons Citizenship and Immigration Committee to hold an emergency meeting to investigate Lasaia’s case. he said.
He said Immigration Minister Mark Miller and federal passport officials should appear before the committee and explain what happened.
“You think the integrity of our passport system is one of the most important parts of ensuring that known criminals can’t get new passports once we take away their old ones. This is a complete failure,” Kmietz said.
“How bad is our national security infrastructure if we can’t figure out the most basic of our systems?”
Passport system called “Weak Link”
Kelly Sandberg, an associate professor of criminology at Mount Royal University in Calgary, said Canada’s current passport system is a “weak link in the security chain.”
Sandberg said the passport vetting process takes place in a separate silo from databases shared by courts and police. Currently, it is up to individual law enforcement agencies, such as the RCMP, to contact Canadian Passport to report an individual.
“It’s very superficial security, very honor system-based,” he said.
Sandberg said the passports should be moved under the control of the CBSA, which is linked to law enforcement databases.
“We have to start taking border security seriously.”
Currently, the passport program is the responsibility of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. However, Employment and Social Development Canada offers the program through Service Canada.
CBC News also reported that Lasaia was found guilty of possessing two Canadian passports that were not in his name when he landed at Toronto’s Pearson Airport in 2008, and was sentenced to 52 days in jail. It was also revealed that he had been sentenced to
President Donald Trump’s pledge to crack down on illegal immigration in the United States has heightened concerns about the influx of immigrants into Canada. Officials say it is impossible for the country to house the migrants, while advocates worry that migrants will be risking their lives in frigid conditions.
In 2017, CBSA investigators in Quebec charged Mr. Lasaia in connection with a human smuggling case at the port of entry in Dundee, Que., about 125 kilometers southwest of Montreal. He pleaded guilty to “counseling misrepresentation” under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and received an 18-month conditional sentence.
Immigration Canada said it could not comment specifically on Lasaia’s case, citing privacy laws.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) and Service Canada are working closely with our law enforcement partners for information regarding passport return orders,” the ministry said in an emailed statement.
“If our law enforcement partners become aware that an applicant has forged or altered a passport, the file will be subject to further investigation.”
RCMP declined to comment and said it was aware that Immigration Canada would respond to questions from CBC News.
Motivation is “pure desire”
Mr Eamer said he first encountered Mr Lasaia on April 1, 2021, in a motel parking lot in Cornwall, about 4km north of the border. The task force received information from the United States regarding ongoing human smuggling cases through the CBSA.
Eamer was at the front of a marked patrol car split between two vehicles at the motel. One was driven by Rasia, and the other was driven by a woman who had parked her car in the parking lot to hand over a Sri Lankan national who had just been smuggled across the border.
“The motive here is pure greed. People are trying to make money,” Eamer said. “There’s nothing altruistic about it at all. They’re just doing it for profit.”
After Lasaiah was arrested, Eamer sat across the table from a Sri Lankan man who had been smuggled into Canada in the interrogation room.
According to a video of the interrogation obtained by authorities, the man cried loudly and spoke in Tamil about the wife he left behind in Malaysia, his fear of returning to the United States or his home country, and his desire to apply for asylum in Canada. CBC News.
“I hope that I can be granted refugee status in this country,” the man said through tears through a Tamil interpreter who was using a speakerphone.
Eamer said he can’t help in that way because he’s not an immigration judge.
“My role here is to investigate the criminal activities of those who smuggled him across the border as a victim,” Eamer told an interpreter.
The Sri Lankan national said Mr. Lasia charged him C$7,000 to let him enter Canada. The man said he didn’t have much cash on hand at the time of the transaction, but Lasaia promised him a job so he could repay the money.
“He said, ‘You can give me a small amount back,'” the Sri Lankan national told Eamer through an interpreter.
Canadian immigration authorities sent the man back to the United States
