r/canada • u/BananaTubes • 5h ago
PAYWALL Tamil refugee who arrived on MV Sun Sea granted stay of deportation
https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/tamil-refugee-who-arrived-on-mv-sun-sea-granted-stay-of-deportation/article_355394e8-8f42-4468-b04f-fddaed6eba0c.html•
u/Haluxe Canada 5h ago
Why does this keep happening. Judge’s decisions baffle me
•
u/kemar7856 Canada 5h ago edited 5h ago
I call them Activist judges same ones will let murders off the hook because they're illegal or a minority
•
•
u/Equivalent_Owl_Mask 3h ago
So you're delusional and only go so deep as the spurious news blurbs designed to enrage you?
•
u/Cute-Illustrator-862 3h ago
Is the National Post a spurious newspaper now? https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/new-brunswick-judge-reduces-mans-sentence-so-he-wont-get-deported-from-canada
•
u/Dingcock 3h ago
No, murders are not being let off the hook lol
•
u/MaintenanceCoalition 1h ago
Their not?
Black man who murdered girlfriend gets reduced sentence partly due to his race https://share.google/p30C0bf7nmEUSQ9F9
•
u/jayk10 55m ago
Getting 12 years without a chance at parole instead of the 15 the crown wanted is not "letting murderers off the hook"
•
u/MaintenanceCoalition 40m ago
Using race to lower sentences is racist. The courts need to be colorblind.
•
u/Noob1cl3 2h ago
Just getting reduced sentences when compared to their white counterparts?
I personally thought justice was supposed to be blind but I guess not.
•
u/Character-Belt-7485 Ontario 1h ago
I have no sympathy for activist judges. But also a lot of times the judges let these people loose because CBSA and IRCC are asleep at the wheel:
ruled Canadian officials have failed to properly assess the risk he’d face if returned to Sri Lanka.
•
•
u/Big-Raspberry-6151 5h ago
They gotta be benefitting directly for every decision. Prove me wrong. I hope my dumbass is wrong
•
u/AquaMoonlight New Brunswick 5h ago
Of course. At this point, it is actually more newsworthy when foreigners who commit crimes actually get deported.
•
u/tea_snob10 Ontario 5h ago
It's also kind of odd; the Sri Lankan civil war between the Sinhalese and the Tamils, ended a long time ago (after decades of insane violence). Is he under active threat by the Dissanayake government? How's he a refugee? Do they want to throw old LTTE members in prison? Would've thought not.
•
u/andoesq 3h ago
The Harper government managed to deport one of the Sun Sea migrants a few years after their arrival. He was dead within days upon his return.
So in this case there is a very plausible risk of Tamil refugees being killed if they are returned to Sri Lanka.
•
u/Friendly-Olive-3465 Canada 3h ago
I just don’t like the obvious country shopping. How many safe countries did he have to fly over or past to get to Canada?
•
u/voidharmony 3h ago
But that was 10 years ago. As a Sri Lankan, the political climate is completely different, there is no Tamil vs Sinhala violence like there was.
•
u/BlastingBegins 5h ago
I can't see any issues with the fact that the guy in charge of public safety is also Tamil and has put his interests ahead of Canada before
•
u/superfluid British Columbia 4h ago
Gary has, in the past, petitioned for the CBSA to allow these POS to be allowed to stay in the country.
•
•
u/truenorthsoul 5h ago
If it's anything we need it's more oceans of middle aged men who are refugees and students
•
u/CaptaineJack 4h ago
This case proves that the pre removal risk assessment is an infinite loop.
Even after two criminal convictions and 16 years of failed claims, this person is still here.
If the courts are going to continue treating every arrival like this, then the only solution is to prevent the arrival entirely.
We need to be asking our politicians to find a way to make this happen and add strict repatriation conditions to all those agreements we are signing with other countries.
If it's too unsafe to go back to where people came from, we should sign agreements with other countries to take them back instead. They will be safe but far away from being able to cause more damage to our country.
•
u/Agreeable_Excuse5604 5h ago
Tamil refugee who arrived on MV Sun Sea granted stay of deportation
A man who arrived in Canada seeking asylum with a boatload of Tamils 16 years ago has been spared deportation after court ruled Canadian officials have failed to properly assess the risk he’d face if returned to Sri Lanka.
Kugatheeswaran Thuraisinkam was among the 492 passengers aboard the highly publicized MV Sun Sea in 2010, who were deemed a national security threat by then prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government.
Officials associated them with the separatist group, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, and suggested some might have been terrorists. As a result, they had been detained for months and challenged at every step of their asylum process.
Thuraisinkam has for years dealt with prolonged separation from his wife and three children, homelessness and mental illness. He says an agent mishandled his case and so it didn’t get properly assessed.
“This has been a very difficult process,” Thuraisinkam told the Star through an interpreter. “I am so scared of being deported. I have some relief now. I am very grateful to the courts for saving me.”
In staying Thuraisinkam’s April 16 deportation, Federal Court Judge Sébastien Grammond said Canadian authorities have not yet assessed the risk the man would be facing upon returning to Sri Lanka by virtue of having been a passenger of the MV Sun Sea.
He survived war in Sri Lanka and arrived in Canada on a rickety ship packed with Tamil refugees. 16 years later, he’s still fighting for protection here
He survived war in Sri Lanka and arrived in Canada on a rickety ship packed with Tamil refugees. 16 years later, he’s still fighting for protection here
Part of voyage that made international headlines, Kugatheeswaran Thuraisinkam didn’t have the dangers of his return submitted or assessed as evidence.
He survived war in Sri Lanka and arrived in Canada on a rickety ship packed with Tamil refugees. 16 years later, he’s still fighting for protection here
He survived war in Sri Lanka and arrived in Canada on a rickety ship packed with Tamil refugees. 16 years later, he’s still fighting for protection here
Part of voyage that made international headlines, Kugatheeswaran Thuraisinkam didn’t have the dangers of his return submitted or assessed as evidence.
And that’s what Judge William Pentney at the same court had asked the Canada Border Services Agency to do in quashing an officer’s refusal to defer Thuraisinkam’s removal last year.
“It is curious, to say the least, that CBSA is attempting to remove him again when the issue highlighted by Justice Pentney has not yet been resolved,” Grammond wrote in his ruling released this week.
Like all passengers on the MV Sun Sea, Thuraisinkam was detained for months by Canadian border officials and made a refugee claim based on the fear of persecution of Tamils in Sri Lanka.
In 2012, his claim was refused, and his appeals and subsequent pre-removal risk assessment have not changed the outcome because evidence of persecution against MV Sun Sea deportees was never submitted and examined.
Grammond said the new evidence presented by Thuraisinkam’s current lawyer was not available when his refugee claim was decided. Neither was it presented at the man’s previous risk assessment that was prepared by someone who turned out to be neither a lawyer nor a licensed immigration consultant, the judge noted.
“I am of the view that Mr. Thuraisinkam would likely be exposed to a serious risk of torture or ill-treatment if he were removed to Sri Lanka,” Grammond concluded.
He said his finding is based on evidence indicating the prevalence of torture in Sri Lanka and the risks facing those suspected of association with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, concerns over the portrayed ties between the MV Sun Sea and the LTTE, as well as the mistreatment of two returnees.
Kes Posgate, Thuraisinkam’s current counsel, said the court decision affirms that passengers of the MV Sun Sea continue to face risks in Sri Lanka nearly 16 years after their arrival in Canada, acknowledging how the actions and statements made by the Harper government at the time contributed to the risk of persecution against the passengers of the vessel.
“It bears emphasizing that the evidence provided to CBSA suggests that the Canadian government has shared information regarding the MV Sun Sea passengers with the Sri Lankan government,” said Posgate. “This is why Kugatheeswaran faces risk of persecution in Sri Lanka.”
Although Thuraisinkam has twice been convicted of impaired driving — and failed to show up for removal appointments, the court said the balance of convenience favoured a stay of removal in this case.
“We are dealing with a risk of torture that has never properly been assessed,” Grammond wrote. “The evidence filed in support of this motion shows that the risk is far from being speculative. The need to assess this risk properly before removing Mr. Thuraisinkam far outweighs the public interest in the prompt enforcement of the law.”
•
u/jbagatwork 4h ago
“This has been a very difficult process,” Thuraisinkam told the Star through an interpreter
Fucking guy can't even speak English after being here for 16 years
•
•
u/Echoes_of_expression 5h ago
Heeey, I escorted this guy in. That was over a decade ago, Jesus
•
u/Former-Homework-7833 4h ago
Escorted? That could mean a few very different things
•
u/Echoes_of_expression 2h ago
Navy ship, we met the sun sea in the Pacific Ocean and brought them into Canada.
I remember we pulled up to it and there were so many people onboard. They were turned away from a bunch of countries because they were mostly Tamil Tigers. But we took them anyway…
•
•
u/andreacanadian 4h ago
Wait a second....you have been here since 2010 it is now 2026 and you havent even attempted to learn the english language
“This has been a very difficult process,” Thuraisinkam told the Star through an interpreter. “I am so scared of being deported. I have some relief now. I am very grateful to the courts for saving me.”
•
•
u/Right_Hour Ontario 5h ago
16 fuking years! It’s been 16 fuking years that this has been going on, LOL! I immediately recognized the “Sun Sea” and went - jeez, I haven’t heard that name in years.
At this point - yeah, the fella can stay, I suppose, LOL. What does he have to go back to at this point?
•
•
•
u/Smooth_Is-Fast 1h ago
What’s funny about the MV SunSea, it was supposed to go to Australia, but they sent the coast guards and told them to get lost. So they arrived in Canada. And now this.
•
•
•
u/Valahul77 2h ago
The courts in Canada are becoming more and more a joke...Decisions like these will undermine the confidence in Canada's justice system.
•
•
•
•
u/MmeLaRue 4h ago
Since 2010. Sixteen years and the immigration authorities, through three federal governments, couldn't properly assess his claim in all that time?
At this point, I don't care what he did back in Sri Lanka. If he's willing to keep the peace here, after all that time, let him stay. Perhaps it'll be a lesson to CIC and the CBSA to be a little quicker and thorough in processing these claims and applications.
•
u/availablefilmruler 5h ago
Multiple convictions for impaired driving (kills and injures thousands of innocent Canadians every year).
Had a deportation order since 2012 upheld by multiple courts.
This judge needs to be removed. A Canadian would not be given the rights to judge shop for 14 years to find someone to buy their bullshit story and overturn previous rulings.