Smugglers win new deportation hearing

Used inflatable raft to cross St. Lawrence

T ORON TO • Two men caught trying to bring people from the United States into Canada across the St. Lawrence River on an inflatable raft have had their deportation orders put on hold in the wake of last year’s landmark Supreme Court of Canada ruling on human smuggling.

The two cases not only highlight the top court’s reversal on what is considered criminal human smuggling, but also reveal rich details on what authorities said was a crew moving people back and forth across the Canada-U. S. border.

This incident unravelled quickly when remote sensors on the waterfront were triggered on June 6, 2011.

About 1:20 a.m., two RCMP constables spotted a vehicle parked on Hill Island, Ont., a picturesque clump in the St. Lawrence straddling Ontario and New York state.

They found Tamazi Gechuashvili, then 59, and a citizen of Georgia, the former Soviet republic. He said he was lost, the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) heard. The officers searched his vehicle and discovered a patch kit for an inflatable rubber raft and a backpack containing a letter to Robert Comeau. Gechuashvili, who had applied for permanent resident status in Canada, was arrested.

The crew on the other side fared no better. U.S. Border Patrol found Michael Robertson, a Canadian, with two foreign nationals, also Georgians. Robertson admitted he was trying to smuggle the two into Canada.

After the U.S. border guards alerted their Canadian counterparts, tracking dogs and a search team found Mirian Vashakidze and Comeau. A rubber raft, two paddles, a pump and a small duffel bag were near by. What was not found was any fishing equipment, the IRB heard.

Robertson told U.S. authorities Gechuashvili was in charge, and Vashakidze and Comeau were also involved. He said he had brought others across in the past and had also helped take a man into the U.S. from Canada.

Gechuashvili and Vashakidze were deemed inadmissible to Canada on the grounds of organized criminality for international people smuggling. Both were ordered deported, but have not yet been removed.

Since then, the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act changed after a court challenge. The Supreme Court reversed the interpretation of the organized criminality section last November, ruling only smugglers obtaining financial or material benefit could be considered transnational organized crime participants.

Gechuashvili and Vashakidze appealed to the Federal Court for their cases to be reassessed by the IRB.

After the adjudicator did not determine whether they materially benefited from their actions, they were released on bond and granted new hearings.