Human Smuggling in Nova Scotia

OTTAWA - Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says federal law enforcement agencies have yet to determine if a sailboat carrying nine people off the coast of Nova Scotia was involved in human smuggling.

But Kenney says the federal government wasn't aware that the yacht was travelling to Canada and its travel plan was irregular when it got into trouble on Monday night, leaving one man dead and three other sailors missing at sea.

Five people were rescued from the SV Tabasco 2 about 150 kilometres south of Cape Sable Island after the yacht had a mechanical failure.

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews said Tuesday the tragedy is being treated as a possible case of human smuggling that went wrong, and that a number of survivors from the yacht have made refugee claims.

One man who was pulled from the yacht was later pronounced dead in hospital in Yarmouth, N.S., where two other men were being treated for their injuries.

Three other people were taken on board the passing tanker FSL Hamburg, which was headed to Saint John, N.B.

© Shaw Media Inc., 2012. All rights reserved.

Read it on Global News: Officials not aware ill-fated yacht was bound for Canada: Kenney

URL: http://www.globalnews.ca/officials+not+aware+ill-fated+yacht+was+bound+for+canada+kenney/6442609963/story.html

1.      What is the link to Crisis Management?

 The link in this article to crisis management is that there is a chance that a sailboat may have been involved with human smuggling on the coast of Nova Scotia. 9 people have been reported to be involved. 

2.      What stage of Crisis Management does the system appear to be at?

 Right now it seems like this incident is a major issue. The reason it is not a risk is because many illegal smuggling operations exist across Canada especially on the west coast. Security has to be tightened but most of the illegal immigrants do not pose a threat to Canada. 

3.      How well does the system appear to be handling the situation?

 So far there is just an investigation being done by the immigration minister in regards to if this sailboat was involved in human smuggling and who was involved. The federal government states that they were not aware that the boat was traveling to Canada when it started having some mechanical trouble resulting in the death of 1 and 3 other sailors missing at sea. The investigators are investigating the situation and are doing all they can at the present moment.

4.      What level of crisis preparedness does the system appear to have? 

It does not seem that there is much preparedness in Canada for illegal drug smuggling, especially not in a province such as Nova Scotia. So far from the report it also confirms that there is not much preparedness for something like this.

5.      What personal reactions/feelings does the description trigger in you?

This situation is alarming to me. I would never expect human smuggling was going on especially on the east coast of Canada. This article begs the question, what else are we not seeing? This situation really makes us wonder what other types of smuggling are going on and how easy is it...

6.      What advice would you offer to those involved?

The federal government should implement a 100% transparency framework in this situation. They should inform the public through media what the findings of the investigation are so that people are made more aware of these sorts of situations. It is important that public is made aware that these types of occurrences happen in Canada as well.