The Liberal government issued a fresh Canadian passport to a convicted human smuggler linked to the deaths of nine people on the St. Lawrence River despite having his travel documents revoked and being banned from applying for a new passport.
As first reported by the CBC, 51-year-old Thesingarasan Rasiah, a Canadian citizen living in Montreal, Quebec, was granted passport documents on April 11, 2023, despite having been forced to hand his in as part of his release conditions in a human smuggling case dating back to 2021.
Immigration Lawyer Sergio Karas told True North that it’s rare for a Canadian citizen to be barred from accessing a passport.
“The threshold to be met to deny or restrict a passport is very high,” he said. “Passports can be denied to Canadian citizens if the authorities allege that they have misused it or if they have security concerns, or if ordered to restrict the passport by a court.”
In 2021, Rasiah was caught “receiving” a Sri Lankan national who had just been smuggled into Canada in Cornwall, Ont., a small town close to the US-Canada border.
A police interview obtained by the CBC revealed that the man who was smuggled claimed that Rasiah charged him $7000 to illegally enter Canada and that the man planned to pay him Rasiah back through indentured servitude.
Following the investigation, Rasiah was sentenced to 15 months in jail in September 2023—police then re-arrested him in May 2024.
Rasiah was re-arrested following an investigation into the deaths of nine people on the St. Lawrence River. Police alleged Rasiah continued to operate a human smuggling ring despite having been caught and convicted already.
According to an RCMP news release in June, Rasiah was one of eight charged with operating the “large-scale human smuggling ring” that allegedly funnelled illegal migrants into the US from the Cornwall area.
“Between July 2022 and June 2023, this group allegedly smuggled hundreds of desperate migrants through communities along the St. Lawrence River across borders into the United States,” the news release said. “Migrants were allegedly charged thousands of dollars by the smugglers. Dangerous night-time crossings even cost some migrants their lives.”
During the subsequent raid on Rasiah’s home, the RCMP discovered the new passport, found on April 11, 2024, according to court documents obtained by the CBC.
The CBC further noted that in 2008, Rasiah was sentenced to 52 days in jail after being convicted for holding two Canadian passports that “weren’t in his name” after landing at Toronto Pearson Airport.
In 2017, he was charged in connection with a “human smuggling event” at the port of entry in Dundee, Que., in which he pleaded guilty to “counselling misrepresentation” in breach of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. He received an 18-month conditional sentence as a result of the charge.
According to the article, the Canadian passport system is “siloed” from the justice system, preventing Service Canada’s administrators from accessing law enforcement databases. The system relies on law enforcement to flag candidates’ past criminal activities.
The Bloc Quebecois MP Kristina Michaud criticized the Liberal government’s lax border security during Question Period in the House of Commons Tuesday, calling it “dangerously incompetent.”
Liberal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said he would have to verify that the story was true before commenting and that he would be “happy to report back to the house” after he does.
“While the feds are telling us that everything’s okay at the borders, we’re learning that they’re giving a passport to a notorious criminal smuggler,” BQ MP Julie Vignola said during QP Tuesday. “Criminal smugglers are running the show at the borders, right under the federal government’s nose.”
Public Safety Minister Dominic Leblanc said the Liberal government has “invested greatly” in border security, touted that the Liberals reversed cuts Conservatives made at the border and vowed to continue to work with US partners to arrest and prosecute human and drug smugglers across the border.
Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship Canada did not respond to True North’s request to comment before the provided deadline; however, an automated message said that due to privacy laws, the government is unable to provide details on individual cases.
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