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Ottawa, June 25, 2012 —The Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, and the Honourable Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism today made the following statement following the arrest of a man charged in conjunction with the MV Sun Sea case.
We commend the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Canada Border Services Agency for their vigilance and diligent work in the latest arrest in the MV Sun Sea case. With the introduction of Bill C-31, the Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, our government is taking concrete steps to crack down and prosecute migrant smugglers and preventing others from committing these serious crimes in the future.
Canada has a longstanding reputation as a generous and compassionate country that welcomes newcomers. However, Canadians will not tolerate abuse of our immigration system for financial gain through the despicable crime of migrant smuggling.
The MV Sun Sea was a migrant vessel that brought 492 irregular migrants to Canada in August of 2010 as part of a migrant smuggling event. With this latest arrest, a total of five men have now been arrested for their involvement, four of whom are currently in Canadian police custody and one of whom is facing extradition from France. A sixth man is not believed to be in Canada and there is a Canada-wide warrant out for his arrest.
For more information on the arrest and charges laid, please visit the RCMP web site:
http://bc.rcmp.ca/ViewPage.action?siteNodeId=50languageId=1contentId=25966
For more information on Protecting Canada’s Immigration System Act, please visit the Citizenship and Immigration Canada web site at: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/index.asp
For further information (media only), please contact:
Media Relations
Public Safety Canada
(613) 991-0657
Media Relations
Citizenship and Immigration Canada
613-952-1650
CIC-Media-Relations@cic.gc.ca
Media Relations
Canada Border Services Agency
(613) 957-6500
Building a stronger Canada: Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) strengthens Canada’s economic, social and cultural prosperity, helping ensure Canadian safety and security while managing one of the largest and most generous immigration programs in the world.
