Maple Ridge prisons get ready for Tamil refugees
By Todd Coyne, Vancouver SunAugust 10, 2010
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> function resizeImage() { var imgBox = document.getElementById('imageBox'); var photo = document.getElementById('storyphoto'); if (imgBox != null & photo != null) { if(photo.width >= 460) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize460'; } else { if(photo.width >= 300) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize310'; } else { imgBox.className = 'imageboxpadding'; } imgBox.style.width = photo.width + 'px'; } } } function getStoryFontSize() { var storyfontsize = getCookie('storyfontsize'); // use cookied value, if present if (storyfontsize != null) { setClass('story_content',storyfontsize); } else // default it to para14 if no cookie { setClass('story_content','para14'); } } function getCookie( check_name ) { // split this cookie up into name/value pairs var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' ); var a_temp_cookie = ''; var cookie_name = ''; var cookie_value = ''; var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ ) { // split apart each name=value pair a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies.split( '=' ); // and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); // if the extracted name matches passed check_name if ( cookie_name == check_name ) { b_cookie_found = true; // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is): if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 ) { cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') ); } // note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned return cookie_value; break; } a_temp_cookie = null; cookie_name = ''; } if ( !b_cookie_found ) { return null; } } </SCRIPT>As the Canadian government is expecting a ship containing up to 200 Tamil refugees to arrive on B.C. shores this weekend, two corrections centres in Maple Ridge are preparing to receive them.
Canadian Tamil Congress spokeswoman Manjula Selvarajah said those on board the M.V. Sun Sea are fleeing Sri Lanka after the end of a war of independence between the Tamil Tigers army and the Sri Lankan government. The Tamil Tigers are considered a terrorist organization by Canada and its members are banned from entering Canada.
According to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, any person on Canadian soil has access to the same rights and freedoms that any Canadian citizen would.
Local MP Randy Kamp was a guest speaker at the Meadow Ridge Rotary meeting Tuesday, saying that in the current refugee application system it can take more than four years to gain refugee status.
"In one case it even took 10 years," he said.
Kamp said that people tend to take advantage of that system knowing that they'll at least have a place to live and knowing that they can stay for a long period of time, especially with the lengthy appeals process they can also go through.
He also told the Rotary club that the government has been working on fixing that process, but that the new system won't be in place for another six months, meaning it can't help with the current situation with the Tamil refugees.
The ship will likely be intercepted by the Canada Border Services Agency and escorted to CFB Comox near Victoria, similar to what happened last October when 76 Tamil asylum-seekers arrived in B.C. waters onboard the Ocean Lady.
Maple Ridge district spokesman John Leeburn said Tuesday that wardens at Fraser Regional Corrections Centre and Alouette Correctional Centre for Women were told last week to prepare to receive Tamil migrants thought to be aboard the MV Sun Sea, the Sri Lankan ship reportedly headed for the B.C. coast.
Leeburn said that "somewhere in the order of 80 females and somewhere in the order or 100 males" were what the Maple Ridge provincial prisons were told to ready space for.
In October 2009, the same prisons were used to house 76 Tamil men who arrived in Victoria aboard the migrant vessel, MV Ocean Lady.
Asked why the corrections centres in Maple Ridge were chosen, Kamp merely said that it was "convenient."
Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism in Singapore, said there were Tamil Tiger leaders among the group that arrived on the Ocean Lady and even more onboard the M.V. Sun Sea.
"The ship carries not just refugees, but is staffed by a Tamil Tiger crew," said Gunaratna, who has studied the Tamil Tigers and their 25-year war since 1984. The Tamils lost their fight for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka's north in May, 2009.
-- with files from Postmedia News
© Copyright (c) Maple Ridge Times
By Todd Coyne, Vancouver SunAugust 10, 2010
<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> function resizeImage() { var imgBox = document.getElementById('imageBox'); var photo = document.getElementById('storyphoto'); if (imgBox != null & photo != null) { if(photo.width >= 460) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize460'; } else { if(photo.width >= 300) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize310'; } else { imgBox.className = 'imageboxpadding'; } imgBox.style.width = photo.width + 'px'; } } } function getStoryFontSize() { var storyfontsize = getCookie('storyfontsize'); // use cookied value, if present if (storyfontsize != null) { setClass('story_content',storyfontsize); } else // default it to para14 if no cookie { setClass('story_content','para14'); } } function getCookie( check_name ) { // split this cookie up into name/value pairs var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' ); var a_temp_cookie = ''; var cookie_name = ''; var cookie_value = ''; var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ ) { // split apart each name=value pair a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies.split( '=' ); // and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); // if the extracted name matches passed check_name if ( cookie_name == check_name ) { b_cookie_found = true; // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is): if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 ) { cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') ); } // note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned return cookie_value; break; } a_temp_cookie = null; cookie_name = ''; } if ( !b_cookie_found ) { return null; } } </SCRIPT>As the Canadian government is expecting a ship containing up to 200 Tamil refugees to arrive on B.C. shores this weekend, two corrections centres in Maple Ridge are preparing to receive them.
Canadian Tamil Congress spokeswoman Manjula Selvarajah said those on board the M.V. Sun Sea are fleeing Sri Lanka after the end of a war of independence between the Tamil Tigers army and the Sri Lankan government. The Tamil Tigers are considered a terrorist organization by Canada and its members are banned from entering Canada.
According to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, any person on Canadian soil has access to the same rights and freedoms that any Canadian citizen would.
Local MP Randy Kamp was a guest speaker at the Meadow Ridge Rotary meeting Tuesday, saying that in the current refugee application system it can take more than four years to gain refugee status.
"In one case it even took 10 years," he said.
Kamp said that people tend to take advantage of that system knowing that they'll at least have a place to live and knowing that they can stay for a long period of time, especially with the lengthy appeals process they can also go through.
He also told the Rotary club that the government has been working on fixing that process, but that the new system won't be in place for another six months, meaning it can't help with the current situation with the Tamil refugees.
The ship will likely be intercepted by the Canada Border Services Agency and escorted to CFB Comox near Victoria, similar to what happened last October when 76 Tamil asylum-seekers arrived in B.C. waters onboard the Ocean Lady.
Maple Ridge district spokesman John Leeburn said Tuesday that wardens at Fraser Regional Corrections Centre and Alouette Correctional Centre for Women were told last week to prepare to receive Tamil migrants thought to be aboard the MV Sun Sea, the Sri Lankan ship reportedly headed for the B.C. coast.
Leeburn said that "somewhere in the order of 80 females and somewhere in the order or 100 males" were what the Maple Ridge provincial prisons were told to ready space for.
In October 2009, the same prisons were used to house 76 Tamil men who arrived in Victoria aboard the migrant vessel, MV Ocean Lady.
Asked why the corrections centres in Maple Ridge were chosen, Kamp merely said that it was "convenient."
Rohan Gunaratna, who heads the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism in Singapore, said there were Tamil Tiger leaders among the group that arrived on the Ocean Lady and even more onboard the M.V. Sun Sea.
"The ship carries not just refugees, but is staffed by a Tamil Tiger crew," said Gunaratna, who has studied the Tamil Tigers and their 25-year war since 1984. The Tamils lost their fight for an independent homeland in Sri Lanka's north in May, 2009.
-- with files from Postmedia News
© Copyright (c) Maple Ridge Times