The Canadian government issued a new passport to a convicted human smuggler allegedly connected to several migrant deaths, despite a court order barring him from applying for one.
Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) investigators discovered the passport during a June 2023 search of the Montreal home of Thesingarasan Rasiah, who was under strict release conditions and wearing an ankle monitor while awaiting sentencing for a 2021 human smuggling conviction.
Rasiah had been ordered to surrender his previous passport in 2021 and was explicitly forbidden from obtaining a replacement, CBC News reported.
The newly issued passport, dated April 11, 2023, came to light amid an RCMP investigation into Rasiah's alleged leadership of an international smuggling ring. Authorities believe the network moved hundreds of people across the Canada-U.S. border and was linked to the March 2023 deaths of nine migrants in the St. Lawrence River.
MP Tom Kmiec, Conservative immigration critic, called the incident a "complete failure."
"You think the integrity of our passport system is one of the most critical parts of ensuring that ... known criminals aren't able to get brand new passports after we take away their old ones," Kmiec said.
Kelly Sundberg, a criminology professor at Mount Royal University, described Canada's passport screening process as "very superficial" and largely reliant on an "honor system."
He suggested transferring the passport program from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada to the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), which has access to police databases.
"We got to start taking border security seriously," Sundberg said.
Rasiah's criminal history includes convictions for possessing fraudulent passports and prior involvement in human smuggling. He was sentenced to 15 months in jail in September 2023 for the 2021 offense and remains in custody on additional charges linked to the smuggling network.
Investigators revealed Rasiah continued smuggling operations while on bail.
"The motivation in this is pure greed," Former OPP detective Matthew Eamer said. "It's people looking to make money."
The federal government declined to comment on the case, citing privacy laws, but stated it relies on law enforcement to flag individuals under restrictions.
Kmiec has called for an emergency parliamentary committee meeting to investigate how Rasiah was issued a passport in violation of his conditions.
"How bad is our national security infrastructure when we can't catch the most basic things in our system?" Kmiec questioned.
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