BURNABY                                                                                                        

 August 2010

Thank you for your recent letter concerning the Tamil migrant ship that has docked in Victoria's harbor. According to Canada's Immigrations and Refugee Protection Act each person arriving in Canada must be treated equally under the law.

These refugees will be processed by Canadian Immigration officials and each individual's situation will be assessed.  Genuine refugees will be permitted to stay in Canada and those that are not legitimate will be sent back to their country of origin.

The United Nations Human Rights Commission reported last month that there are reports of ongoing serious human rights abuses in Northern Sri Lanka and Canada has a long standing tradition of assisting people from around the world who are seeking protection.

These people have endured a long possibly horrifying boat ride and not allowing the ship to dock could result in serious consequences.  Not only are there people in ill health requiring immediate medical attention, there quite probably could be negative repercussions if these people were to return to war torn Sri Lanka.

In 1939, Canada turned away the SS St Louis. More than 900 Jewish refugees were forced back to Nazi Germany. Similarly, 26 Sikhs were shot dead when their ship Komagata Maru was forced to return to South Asia by the Canadian immigration officials of the time.

Allowing this ship to dock at a Canadian port and processing them is in keeping with Canada's humanitarian and international obligations.

Bill Siksay, MP

Burnaby-Douglas

WLS:lc

CEP 232