Ministers to Testify on Convicted Human Smuggler’s Reissued Canadian Passport

Cabinet ministers will testify before a House of Commons committee following a report that a human trafficker was issued a new passport after surrendering it under court-imposed release conditions.
“There are a lot of questions here to ask, primarily, how could Passport Canada issue a passport to a well-known criminal with an existing court order forbidding him from having a travel document?” Conservative MP and immigration critic Tom Kmiec asked. “How could he be issued a new passport?”
Kmiec introduced the motion to call the cabinet ministers to testify.
At the time of the raid, Rasiah was under house arrest while awaiting sentencing for a February 2023 guilty plea to breaching the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act for his role in smuggling the Sri Lankan national.
“I don’t know why you would give house arrest to a human smuggler, especially in a case where his smuggling network is accused credibly of having caused the death of eight persons. I find that baffling to me,” Kmiec said. He added that Rasiah was sentenced to 15 months in jail in September 2023.
NDP MP Jenny Kwan raised concerns about whether the court had effectively communicated to the immigration department that Rasiah was prohibited from obtaining a travel document.
“There is a big question in my mind, Mr. Chair, and that is: once the court made that decision, how was it—or if it was, in fact—communicated to the relevant departments, which would be the passport department?” Kwan said. “Someone would have undertaken that responsibility, because you can’t expect IRCC or the passport office to know that there is this court order in place.”
Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), under the portfolio of Immigration Minister Miller, is responsible for Canada’s passport services.