Deporting murder accused cost over $17,000
Sri Lankan’s trial was stopped due to excessive delays
It cost taxpayers at least $17,000 to deport a man accused of murdering his wife to his native Sri Lanka after his trial was stopped because of excessive delays, according to information obtained by the Presse Canadienne.
Sivaloganathan Thanabalasingham was deported on July 5. He was the first accused in Quebec to obtain a stay of proceedings because of what is generally referred to as the Jordan ruling, which requires that a trial in Superior Court cannot exceed 30 months. In Thanabalasingham’s case, the proceeding lasted for 56 months, all of which he spent in detention awaiting trial.
After being freed last April, the 31-year-old Thanabalasingham was almost immediately arrested by Canadian Border Services Agency officers assigned to execute a deportation order in connection with a guilty plea he had entered for an earlier charge of armed assault. Meanwhile, in the nine months preceding the murder, Thanabalasingham had been arrested three times for conjugal violence.
Despite numerous access to information requests, the Presse Canadienne was unable to obtain precise figures on how much it cost Canadian taxpayers to send Thanabalasingham home.
However one access request determined that three deportations to Sri Lanka from Quebec were recorded between January and July of 2017, the least costly of which totalled $17,486.80 while the most expensive cost $26,629.19.
The amounts included a one-way plane ticket for the deportee, return tickets for the agents accompanying him or her, the agents’ salaries and overtime and unspecified “personal expenses.”
Thanabalasingham was first arrested for conjugal violence in December 2011 and arrested again for armed assault in January of 2012. He was arrested a third time on May 30, 2012, for assault and violating the conditions of his release.
Quebec’s office of criminal prosecutions has said it will appeal the stay of proceedings that freed Thanabalasingham. If the appeal overturns the decision, a new trial could be ordered even though the accused is no longer in the country.