Eight victims from two families who perished this week while attempting to cross the St. Lawrence River by boat from Canada to the United States have now been found by Canadian police near the U.S.-Canada border, including the body of a missing baby.
According to Shawn Dulude, head of the Akwesasne Mohawk Police Service, “two further remains have been found, one a child, a Canadian citizen of Romanian origin, and one adult female thought to be an Indian person.”
Six dead were found by police on Thursday, and they think the tragedy could have happened on Wednesday night.
While Casey Oakes, a 30-year-old man who has gone missing, is being sought as a person of interest in the investigation, Dulude said that they do not expect there are any other remains to be recovered. The victims’ recovery site was not far from where his boat was discovered.
The deceased looked to be from two families—one Romanian and one Indian—that were making an unlawful attempt to enter the United States, according to Deputy Chief Lee-Ann O’Brien earlier on Friday.
According to officials, at least two of the fatalities had Canadian passports. Police are awaiting the results of a post-mortem and toxicology testing from Montreal to identify the exact cause of death.
U.S. According to opponents, the decision by President Joe Biden and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to halt asylum seekers from entering Canada via unauthorized border crossings last week might lead to more risk-taking by refugees and migrants.
The agreement that shut down all unauthorized border crossings, including Roxham Road in Quebec, was not relevant in this case, according to Akwesasne police, since the family wanted to go to the United States, not Canada.
This has nothing to do with that closure, I can assure you right now, O’Brien added.
A four-person Indian family perished in Manitoba, Canada, last year while attempting to enter the United States.
The Akwesasne reservation includes territory in New York, Ontario, and Quebec on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River. With funding from Quebec, local police patrol the river constantly to combat people- and goods-smuggling.
Chief Abram Benedict of the Akwesasne Tribe told reporters, “We are hurting from this catastrophe. It does highlight the difficulties that both Canada and the US have with immigration.
With 80 interceptions documented since the start of the year, more people are exploiting Akwesasne land to attempt to enter the United States covertly, according to Dulude. The bulk of these individuals are Indians or Romanians.
The weather was bad on Wednesday night, when the family probably tried to cross the river.
O’Brien said that it was sleeting, pouring, and “extremely windy.” It was unsafe to be in the water at that time.
Deaths were described by Trudeau as “heartbreaking.”
He told reporters in Moncton, New Brunswick, “We need to fully investigate what occurred, how this happened, and do all we can to guarantee that we’re reducing the possibilities of it occurring again.”
