Man faces deportation after murder case dropped
Charges dropped following delays; now it could take 4 years for IRB to hear appeal
The Immigration and Refugee Board has issued a deportation order against a man whose murder charge was dropped last week because a judge ruled it took too long to bring him to trial. But it could be years before Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham is returned to his native Sri Lanka because of a lengthy appeal process.
During a hearing at the IRB on Monday, board member Dianne Tordorf issued the removal order against Thanabalasingham, 31, because he had been convicted of assaulting his wife on three occasions between December 2011 and May 2012.
Tordo rf also ruled that Thanabalasingham would remain detained at least until a second detention review on Thursday.
His brother testified that if Thanabalasingham were released, pending an appeal of the deportation order, he could live with him and his family. The brother offered to put up $5,000 cash and a $50,000 bond on his house, but Tordorf said she wanted to make sure that Thanabalasingham’s sister-in-law agrees with those conditions.
It could take three to four years for an appeal of the deportation order to be heard by the IRB’s appeal division, Tordorf said.
Tordorf told Thanabalasingham that she considered him a somewhat of a flight risk and said he had a “pattern of domestic abuse that ended up with a victim (his wife) being killed.”
Thanabalasingham was charged in August 2012 with the seconddegree murder of his wife, 21-yearold Anuja Baskaran.
His trial was supposed to begin at the Montreal courthouse on Monday. But last Thursday, Superior Court Justice Alexandre Boucher ruled that the Crown took too long to start the trial. The judge’s ruling was based on a Supreme Court of Canada decision last July that set new limits on how long a person accused of a crime should expect to wait to have a trial in Canada.
The limit was set at 30 months for Superior Court cases. Thanabalasingham’s trial would have started 57 months after his arrest.
The Canada Border Services Agency arrested Thanabalasingham on Friday, the day after a stay of proceedings had been issued in his murder trial.
During his detention hearing on Monday, Tordorf noted that Thanabalasingham was not co-operative when he was interviewed by an immigration officer. When asked what weapon was used in the killing of his wife, he replied: “Why don’t you ask my ex-wife.”
“It seems callous to speak like that about a woman who is dead and who was a member of society,” Tordorf told him.
Thanabalasingham also claimed that his wife hit him and made up stories of abuse.
He spoke briefly during his detention hearing and didn’t deny killing his wife. He told Tordorf that he is good with people and hasn’t been violent during his almost five years in prison (awaiting his trial). He said he was only violent one time and said it was a big mistake. He said his life became difficult after his marriage.
Baskaran was fatally stabbed in the throat inside the couple’s home in August 2012, but the trial was only scheduled to start on Monday. In his ruling last week, Boucher criticized the Crown for trying to change the second-degree murder charge to first-degree murder, which resulted in numerous delays during the preliminary hearing.
Thanabalasingham came to Canada in 2004 and applied for refugee status after arriving in Vancouver. He is a permanent resident, but not a Canadian citizen, which means he can be deported for criminal behaviour. If he is eventually deported, he would not be able to return to Canada unless he obtains the approval of the immigration minister.
In Quebec City, the provincial government is calling on Ottawa to appoint more Superior Court justices to try and reduce the backlog of cases in the criminal justice system. The provincial Liberal government says it has hired several prosecutors and said it is time for Ottawa to appoint more justices to the Superior Court.