Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said a proper investigation is needed to get answers on the tragedy on the US-Canada border that resulted in the death of eight people from two families of Indian and Romanian descent and cautioned against speculating on what could have contributed it.
The members of the two families drowned last week in the St Lawrence River while they were attempting to enter the US from Canada illegally.Bodies of eight persons were recovered later from the marsh on the riverbank near Akwesasne, a community which straddles Quebec, Ontario and New York state.The Indian victims have been identified by their kin in India as Pravin Chaudhary (50), Dakshaben Chaudhary (45), their daughter Vidhi (23), and son Met (20). It is too soon to draw connections between the tragedy in Akwesasne and the recent closing of the illegal border crossing at Roxham Road, Prime Minister Trudeau and Quebec Premier Francois Legault said on Tuesday.Some refugee and immigration defence groups have said stricter border policies — recently announced by the federal government under pressure from Quebec and the other provinces — could be a factor pushing new arrivals to seek yet more ways to travel under the radar.
“There is not just dismay, there is heartbreak at what happened to these families,†The Montreal Gazette newspaper quoted Trudeau as telling reporters. “It is something that as governments and as Canadians we need to continue to do everything we can to keep people safe, and particularly the most vulnerable. There are lots of questions about what exactly happened in the tragedy, he said.“That’s why those questions are being answered and we need to make sure there’s a proper investigation to confirm what we know before we speculate on what could have contributed or what could have prevented this,†Trudeau said.
“We need to ground it in real facts and a proper investigation, and that’s what we’re going to be doing.
