Published August 27 , 2010
By Martin C. Barry
In Canada, a long and historic tradition surrounds the arrival of newcomers by boat. Whether you believe that the initial discoverer of this land was the Norse explorer Leif Ericson or the French navigator Jacques Cartier, both found their way from Europe across the Atlantic to the New World during an era when such exploits were only for the most audacious of risk-takers.
Arriving by boat
Besides Canada’s discoverers, virtually everyone else who has come to this country as an immigrant did so at least up to the middle of the 20th century by boat. The great and memorable waves of immigrants to Canada — be they the starving Irish in the mid-19th century, or the battle-weary Italians a century later following the Second World War, or the Vietnamese “boat people” fleeing communism in the late 1970s — were facilitated by a range of vessels on which the condition of the quarters could range from downright unlivable to merely cramped.
While air travel has mostly replaced ocean navigation and almost everyone who comes to Canada from distant lands now arrives by plane, a certain number still manage to reach our shores from some of the most world’s desperate regions, using one of the only means at their disposal: travelling in the holds of cargo vessels. Whatever anyone may say today about the shipload of 500 Sri Lankan men, women and children who arrived on the west coast a few weeks ago, their trip here was in certain ways as treacherous and as courageous as all the journeys taken by countless numbers of people before.
Terrorism suspected
The MV Sun Sea docked in Esquimalt on Aug. 13, after being at sea for more than three months. The refugees aboard are now requesting asylum in Canada, claiming they were persecuted in their native Sri Lanka. But one of the initial concerns of the Conservative government is that members of the Tamil Tigers, a group regarded as a terrorist organization, might be among the claimants. This comes on the heels of a news report in July that four Sri Lankans in Toronto and Montreal are being prosecuted for charging some of their countrymen up to $30,000 for helping them enter Canada using falsified passports.
Conservative Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, who was briefed by Canadian security officials, now maintains that the voyage of the Sun Sea from its port of origin in Thailand was probably orchestrated by the Tamil Tigers who are said to have made more than $20 million from the voyage, based on up to $50,000 per passenger. While the lengthy war of independence in Sri Lanka came to a close more than a year ago when the government there scored a decisive victory over the Tigers, it is now apparent that the conflict with the Tamils is not over. The Tigers are said to be using profits from human smuggling to fund a renewed round of fighting in Sri Lanka.
Political opportunism
While there is an overall consensus among nations that the Tamil Tigers are terrorists and there is no justification for their methods, in Canada some attempts are being made to score points politically from the situation. Although the opinions of B.C. Liberal Keith Martin can scarcely be considered typical of the views among the rest of his party colleagues, he accuses the Conservative government of exploiting the terrorist connection to advance their own agenda. “Toews loves to talk about this boat being filled with terrorists and human traffickers,” he says, suggesting that the Tories are using the Tamil refugees to shine a spotlight on their rigid anti-terrorism stance.
Whatever the truth may be, Canada now has around 500 more refugee claimants in its midst, with an even greater number expected from where these latest ones originated. It should always be remembered that this country has over the decades become the home for countless numbers of people displaced from regions of the world where they were often driven out by injustice. Once here, these displaced peoples have often continued to wage a struggle for justice in their homeland. But Canada is a place for renewal and fresh beginnings. The newly-arrived Tamil refugees should bear this in mind, rather than attempting to pursue the hostilities they left at home.