Six found dead in the St Lawrence
Six people were found dead in the St Lawrence on Thursday, upriver off Akwesasne, and they turn out to be from Romania and India. La Presse links the deaths to the closure of Roxham Road.
Authorities say it looks like the people were trying to illegally enter the U.S.
Update: The death toll has now reached eight.
shawn 11:47 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Right, we knew this was going to happen. We’ll see more attempts at water crossings, I’m sure.
SMD 13:00 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Trudeau has blood on his hands, as do Legault and Polievre and all the other politicians who pushed for this change. These deaths were predictable and preventable and intended. We are now living in a country that refugees drown to get to, like Italy. Shame on all of us.
Kate 13:52 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
If these people were trying to get across to the U.S. illegally, as La Presse’s piece suggests, can this be put on Canada?
The man who died at Christmastime near Roxham Road was also trying to get into the U.S. These unofficial crossing points are not only about trying to get into Canada.
Spi 13:53 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Pretty shameful that either of you would politicize these deaths. These were people that were already safely in Canada (for several years in at least one case since one of children was born in Canada) trying to illegally cross into the US, similarly to that Indian family that died doing the same in Manitoba.
Ideologues that can’t even be bothered to learn the basics fact about the people that died before holding up their deaths as an example of something it is not.
Shame on you SMD, their deaths aren’t just a news story for your political posturing. If you cared the least bit you’d at least read the article.
dwgs 14:00 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Anyone who thinks that human smuggling began at Akwesasne upon the closure of Roxham Road is ill informed, this has been happening for decades and will continue. People, drugs, weapons, cigarettes…
Kate 14:16 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Spi, anything to do with crossing borders invokes politics, for good or bad. Please do not attempt to shame SMD or any other user here.
dwgs, my mother had a friend whose dad used to bootleg booze over the border there during Prohibition in the U.S.
Spi 16:20 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Kate you think it’s acceptable for SMD to inappropriately and incorrectly attribute the deaths of these people on all of us because it fits their political ideology contrary to the facts but calling out SMD’s hypocrisy is beyond reproach?
Kate 17:24 on 2023-03-31 Permalink
Spi, I make mistakes here about complicated stories and motivations and sometimes so do people who comment. I don’t want to be dogpiled on, neither do I want to see anyone dogpiled.
walkerp 11:19 on 2023-04-01 Permalink
Of course their deaths are a function of border policies. Maybe I’m mistaken, but I’m sensing a victim-blaming in your position, SPI. They must have been desperate to attempt such a crossing and that desperation is a result of restrictive border policies.
Kate 11:38 on 2023-04-01 Permalink
I have to admit it seems odd to me that people would be so desperate to get to the U.S. from Canada that they’d risk a tricky crossing of the St Lawrence to do it. All the radio reports have stressed that the kid who died was a Canadian citizen, which suggests one of the families had been here for awhile. What could be so bad in Canada or so alluring in the U.S. that it would be worth desperately risking your life for?
walkerp 12:42 on 2023-04-01 Permalink
I suspect that other family members had neither American nor Canadian citizenship, but the child got it because they were born here. It could have been that some of the members came to Canada as a tourist with the goal of getting citizenship somehow in the US. I can only guess as to their motivations but I would strongly believe they were in a pretty tough situation.