A House of Commons committee voted on Thursday to investigate the alleged human trafficker. Obtained a new Canadian passport through Service Canada after being forced to surrender his previous travel document under court-imposed release conditions.

The Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration agreed to hold a two-day hearing on the matter, with testimony from Immigration Minister Marc Miller, Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, as well as representatives from passport authorities, the RCMP, Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) and officials. With Public Safety Canada.

“There are some serious questions to be asked about whether the Liberal government can get the basics right so that they can use and not issue a legal passport to known criminals banned from having a travel document by court order,” said Conservative MP Tom Kmiec, criticizing the immigration case, who tabled the motion to hold hearings. “Over and over again,” he said.

Admitted human trafficker Thesingarasan Rasiah was charged with transporting a Sri Lankan citizen to Cornwall, Ont., in April 2021. After he was arrested and accused of arranging to smuggle himself from the United States to Canada via , he was ordered to surrender his passport and was prohibited from applying for a new travel document.

The passport ban was one of several conditions of release that also included an order requiring him to wear an ankle bracelet for monitoring.

Smuggling network linked to river deaths

Investigators with the police border task force discovered that Rasiah had obtained a new passport in June 2023 after executing a search warrant at his home in Montreal.

During the raid, police discovered that Rasiah was born in March 2023 in St. He believed he allegedly ran a human trafficking network linked to the drowning deaths of nine people in the St. Lawrence River.

Four members were among the dead a family from india and four members a Romanian family — including babies and toddlers — and the man who guided their boat as they smuggled people into the U.S.

Liberal MP Chris Bittle said the committee’s support for the Conservative party’s motion was an example of “how parliament should work”. He said the passport case revealed a “serious flaw” that needed closer examination.

“At what level did Passport Canada not receive this information?” he asked. “Where is this broken, at what level?”

NDP immigration critic MP Jenny Kwan said she wants to examine what blame the court system bears in this case.

“The court decision on travel documents didn’t come from Passport Canada or IRCC (Immigration Refugees and Citizenship Canada), it actually came from the courts. So there’s a real question about the failure of that system,” Kwan said.

Passport process separate from police and court systems

No date has been set for the hearings, but according to the accepted motion, the hearings should be held before December 18.

Immigration Minister Marc Miller’s office said in an emailed statement that it “will not speculate on possible future outlooks.” The statement said the minister had asked officials to investigate the matter and any findings would be released “when there is an update to share”.

Experts say passport officials review applications superficially and the process operates in a separate silo from police or court databases and systems.

Service Canada administers the passport program on behalf of IRCC.

Retired Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) detective sergeant Matt Eamer, who is part of the border task force, told CBC News that Rasiah is believed to have continued to operate his alleged human trafficking network at home under the circumstances surrounding the April 2021 case.

Rasiah was awaiting sentencing after police found his new passport at his home after pleading guilty in the human trafficking case in April 2021. The passport was issued on April 11, 2023 and would be valid for 10 years.

The border task force, which included members of the RCMP, OPP and CBSA, arrested Rasiah for breaching his conditions during the June 2023 raid. He was sentenced to 15 months in prison in September 2023 for the human trafficking case in April 2021.

Rasiah was arrested again this May and charged along with eight other defendants on multiple human trafficking-related charges. RCMP said at a media conference in June that Rasiah allegedly led a human trafficking network with international reach that smuggled hundreds of people north and south across the Canada-U.S. border.

Rasiah, who remains in custody, is scheduled for a two-day bail hearing in Morrisburg, Ontario, on November 27 and 28.