Not guilty in migrants case
Defence of offering aid rang true to judge
Four Sri Lankan men accused of bringing dozens of Tamil migrants to Canada aboard a dilapidated cargo vessel eight years ago have been found not guilty of human smuggling.
Prosecutors argued that Francis Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah and Vignarajah Thevarajah helped organize the trafficking operation to profit from people looking for asylum in Canada.
But Justice Arne Silverman of the Supreme Court of British Columbia said the Crown failed to prove its case.
“I am also not satisfied that their actions were to obtain, either directly or indirectly, a financial or material benefit, or that any of the them obtained one,” he said while delivering his verdict in Vancouver.
The four men smiled, laughed and shook hands after the judge released his ruling.
The accused were part of a group of 76 young men who arrived on B.C.’s coast from Sri Lanka on the MV Ocean Lady in October 2009. The migrants were seeking refuge in Canada from a civil war that was ravaging their homeland, Silverman said in his decision.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2015 that people providing humanitarian aid, including family members, should not be captured by smuggling laws. The Crown argued the top court’s exemptions didn’t apply because the accused helped organize and execute the voyage, which cost migrants thousands of dollars.
Silverman said that while there was evidence of organized criminal activity in the smuggling operation, he wasn’t satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the men were connected to any crime. “I have determined that these four accused were asylum seekers and that there is an air of reality to the defence of mutual aid.”
Phil Rankin, a lawyer for Kanagarajah, said the judge sent a good message — “that those who profit should be prosecuted and those who seek asylum should not be prosecuted.”