THE INVASION CONTINUES ………

Press Releases:

CBC Newsworld |

Latest ship also from Fujian

WebPosted Tue Aug 31 21:20:26 1999

VICTORIA, B.C. – Another boatload of would-be immigrants were rescued from their decrepit ship off the coast of Vancouver Island on Tuesday. “The occupants of the vessel all appear to be of Chinese origin. We believe they are from Fujian province,” said Department of Immigration spokesman George Varnai.

It is the largest of three shiploads of immigrants to arrive off the British Columbia coast in the past two months. Immigration officials say they’re still not sure exactly how many people were onboard the ship, but they estimate there are about 190.

BCTV NEWS | Tuesday August 31, 1999

DOSANJH SUGGESTS NEW IMMIGRATION POLICIES NEEDED

(BCTV) – [BC] Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh had some strong words today on the migrants situation. When asked about it this morning, he suggested some new immigration policies.

“I can understand the anger. I have sensed that anger for some time. So, I am not suggesting that that anger is misplaced.” (BC Attorney General Ujjal Dosanjh)

NEW YORK TIMES | August 29, 1999

Canada Is Leery of a Rise in Refugees

By JAMES BROOKE

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The image of two tramp steamers disgorging 254 undocumented Chinese immigrants on beaches here this summer was enough for a local pharmacist to unleash a tirade about Canada’s “lax” immigration law and “silly excuses” for refugee status, ending with a harsh finale: “We are being treated like suckers!”

… But what made the Vancouver pharmacist’s outburst notable is that the speaker, Derick Y.J. Cheng, is the owner of a Chinatown drugstore, chairman of Vancouver’s Chinese Cultural Center and a native of Fujian, the home province of the undocumented immigrants whose arrival this summer caused such furor.

With ethnic Chinese people accounting for 20 percent of greater Vancouver’s population and Asians accounting for half of this fall’s freshman class at the University of British Columbia, it is hard to accuse this city of anti-Asian intolerance.

But Cheng’s anger, echoed repeatedly this month in letters to Vancouver’s three Chinese daily newspapers and on talk shows on local Chinese radio and television stations, reflects how attitudes toward immigration are shifting sharply across Canada, a nation that probably has the world’s most liberal immigration policies.

On a per capita basis, Canada receives more immigrants than any country in the world. … Canada admits aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, fiances, common law spouses, and same-sex partners. On arrival, landed immigrants immediately are entitled to the same menu of health, welfare and university benefits as lifelong Canadian citizens.

But this summer’s smuggling boats suddenly exposed a latent fear among Canadians that, because of their famous generosity and courteousness, they are becoming a nation of doormats.

… “This has really gone off the charts,” said Gary Lunn, a member of Parliament from the area for the conservative Reform Party. “We have had over 1,000 people contacting my office to sign petitions. The phones have been jammed for weeks.”

This fall, Lunn said, the Reform Party planned to introduce legislation to tighten Canada’s immigration laws. He predicted that what he termed “the public outcry” would be so great that the governing Liberals would have to vote to restrict immigration.

… The arrival of the two boats, one on July 20 and the other on Aug. 11, drew into sharp focus a larger, but fuzzier illegal immigration problem. Every year, about 5,000 people flying to Canada tear up their documents on airplanes, and then apply for refugee status.

An increasingly popular practice is to apply for refugee status, and then disappear during the one year review period. That abuse has increased 20-fold during the 1990s, reaching 4,203 documented cases last year. Among nationalities, Chinese are the worst abusers of the system, with 53 percent of claimants vanishing after being released on refugee status during the first half of this year. During that time, 95 percent of Chinese claimants in Montreal and 72 percent of Chinese claimants in Vancouver disappeared. Most are presumed to have sneaked or been smuggled across the border to the United States.

“There are 600 under review, only 200 show up, what do you think happened to the 400?” Cheng said, citing the estimates for Chinese refugee claimants in Vancouver last year. “They join the American underground economy. It’s not fair to the U.S.”

In light of that, Vancouver immigration officials claimed victory when only five out of 77 Chinese boat people released failed to show up Wednesday, one week after their initial release. While one arm of the government is seeking to deport the undocumented Chinese, government-paid lawyers try to block them at every turn.

In an effort to get the 53 minors in the group, mostly teen-age girls, to agree to go home voluntarily, the province’s top child-protection official wrote them letters, saying, “I have been told that if you go to the United States, children of both genders will be forced to work as prostitutes or forced to work in a factory by the smugglers.”

Lawyers for the children denounced the letter as an infringement on their right to seek refugee status.

… Saturday’s National Post …reported a government estimate that two thirds of student visa applications received at the Canadian Embassy in Beijing are fraudulent.

… While the general discontent has acquired some racial overtones, even Victor Y. Wong, a Chinese-Canadian activist here, admits that, in modern Vancouver, the debate swirls more around class than on race.

“These are working-class peasant farmers,” Wong, said of the impoverished immigrants. “We have well-heeled Hong Kong Chinese, Canadian-Chinese and Taiwanese Chinese looking down their noses at them. They feel these people water down the community.”

Mason Loh, a regular spokesman for Vancouver’s 300,000-member ethnic Chinese community on English- and Chinese-language talk shows here, agreed.

“There is a feeling we are kicking out the business people and taking in the boat people,” the Taiwan-born lawyer said. He said that the number of ethnic Chinese businessmen moving to Canada had dropped in recent years, partly because Canada has raised the minimum amount of investment money needed to get a visa. “The immigration system is not smart enough,” he said. “We are pushing out the good quality people who can help Canada — and we are taking in the freeloaders.”

JULY 20 – 123 AUG 11 – 131 AUG 31 – 190 (?) TOTAL – 444

Let’s say each of these paid (or owes) the criminal organizers $40,000 US: Thus, with Canada’s collusion, the triads have realized nearly $18-million in human “cargo” fees in just 6 weeks.

Has anyone explained what 50 underage girls were expected to *DO* in Canada? Do immigration lawyers care that the long arm of the triad can reach their families back home – or is it just another wonderful billing opportunity?

Have we learned why ALL 123 from the first ship are making refugee claims? What about the captain? The smugglers? The crew? The enforcers? … What about the two guys caught trying to make a getaway on the makeshift raft with their wad of American dollars? Are they ALL (all 123) refugees?

What a racket!

And the best part? It’s “hate” to oppose the very idea.

AN ALL OUT INVASION IS UNDER WAY. TOMORROW, PHONE YOUR MP’s OFFICE. DEMAND TO KNOW WHAT HE/SHE IS PREPARED TO DO ABOUT THE INVASION. WHY MUST WE CONTINUE TO PAY FOR THESE ILLEGALS?

Other News on the Third Boat of Illegals

Aug. 31, 1999 | Canadian Press

40 ASIANS ABORD SHIP!

Suspicious ship spotted off B.C. coast

PORT HARDY, B.C. (CP) — Immigration Canada’s marine response team was activated Monday after authorities spotted another ship off the West Coast that may contain migrants. A ship with at least 40 people on it was expected to arrive early this morning in this this community on Vancouver Island’s north coast, said Mayor Russ Hellberg.

“The word is to expect 40,” said Russ Hellberg, citing reports from the RCMP to local officials.

“It’s not that big a ship.” It is the third immigrant ship to arrive on B.C.’s coast in just over a month. Hellberg had no further details on whether or how Canadian officials had intercepted the mysterious ship or where it had come from. But he said many in the community are fed up. “We don’t mind looking after people in distress, but this is a little farfetched,” said an exasperated Hellberg. “You saw that last time they came in here we had a few people that were perturbed.

And I certainly expect that if they came in again we will have more people that are perturbed because we believe in fairness but fairness believes that you have to get into queue.” The last two ships carried 254 Chinese migrants between them. Most have claimed refugee status, although some from the second ship are expected to be returned to Fujian province. Their arrivals have prompted a heated discussion about Canada’s refugee policies.

A long-range Aurora aircraft spotted the vessel during a routine patrol Monday. “The maritime response team has been deployed and they are on their way to the location,” Immigration spokesman George Varnai said. A separate source confirmed to The Canadian Press there is a suspicious vessel in Canadian waters, but officials would not say if there are passengers aboard.

Lt.-Cmdr. Gerry Pash of Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt said Citizenship and Immigration asked for assistance from the RCMP, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Defence Department. “The ship was first detected offshore, approaching Canada, by an Aurora aircraft from CFB Comox,” Pash said. Pash declined to reveal the exact location of the vessel. Another source said officials were not releasing details of the ship’s movement or Canadian authorities’ response so as not to tip the suspicious vessel. One report said the ship was about 50 nautical miles off the northwest tip of Vancouver Island. Hellberg said he believes the authorities were caught “flat-footed.

They are a little slow in responding.” “We don’t have any salmon fishing going on this year. They (authorites) should have been able to pick out a ship of this size on the open sea and stop it from coming in.” Rumours of more human smuggling ships have been circulating since the two earlier ships arrived.

The first ship was found off Nootka Sound, near the northern Vancouver Island community of Gold River, on July 20. All 123 Chinese nationals aboard have since claimed refugee status. The second ship carrying 131 people arrived Aug. 11 after a 60-day voyage from China.

The migrants were dropped in the water off the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands and told to wade to shore. Of those, 57 people face possible deportation.

The remaining 74 are being assessed as potential refugees. Migrants from both ships are believed to be from China’s Fujian province, located on China’s east coast across from the island of Taiwan. There were 75 minors among the migrants who are now in the care of the provincial Ministry for Children.

Another possible migrant ship spotted off B.C.

CBC Newsworld | Aug 30 21:26:45 1999

VICTORIA, B.C. – Another ship – the third this summer – possibly carrying illegal immigrants – has been spotted off the B.C. coast.

A spokesman for the Department of National Defence says an Aurora long-range search aircraft flew over the vessel early Monday. The spokesman won’t say where the ship is, but does say the ship is inside Canadian waters.

The Immigration Department has mobilized its marine response unit to deal with the situation.

Two other ships carrying about 250 illegal migrants from Fujian, China, arrived in British Columbia earlier this summer.

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Monday, August 30, 1999 | Canadian Press

Suspicious ship spotted off B.C. coast

VICTORIA (CP) — Immigration Canada’s marine response team was activated Monday after authorities spotted another ship off the West Coast that may contain migrants.

Two ships containing about 250 migrants have already arrived off the west coast of British Columbia since late July. On Monday, a long-range Aurora aircraft spotted a third vessel during a routine patrol. “The maritime response team has been deployed and they are on their way to the location,” Immigration spokesman George Varnai said.

A separate source confirmed to The Canadian Press that there is a suspicious vessel in Canadian waters, but officials are unsure whether there are passengers aboard. Lt.-Cmdr. Gerry Pash of Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt said Citizenship and Immigration asked for assistance from the RCMP, the Canadian Coast Guard and the Defence Department.

“The ship was first detected offshore, approaching Canada, by an Aurora aircraft from CFB Comox,” Pash said.

Pash declined to reveal the exact location of the vessel. Another source said officials were not releasing details of the ship’s movement or Canadian authorities’ response so as not to tip the suspicious vessel. One report said the ship was about 50 nautical miles off the northwest tip of Vancouver Island.

Rumours of more human smuggling ships have been circulating since the two earlier ships arrived.

The first ship was found off Nootka Sound, near the northern Vancouver Island community of Gold River, on July 20. All 123 Chinese nationals aboard have since claimed refugee status.

The second ship carrying 131 people arrived Aug. 11, after a 60-day voyage from China. The migrants were dropped in the water off the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands and told to wade to shore.

Of those, 57 people face possible deportation. The remaining 74 are being assessed as potential refugees. Migrants from both ships are believed to be from China’s Fujian province, located on China’s east coast across from the island of Taiwan.

There were 75 minors among the migrants who are now in the care of the provincial Ministry for Children.

Third ship spotted off B.C. coast Immigration, military authorities mobilize as suspect vessel approaches Canadian waters

KIM LUNMAN | British Columbia Bureau; Globe and Mail

With a report from Canadian Press Tuesday, August 31, 1999

Victoria — Another ship suspected of carrying Chinese migrants was heading toward the coast of British Columbia last night in what has become an increasingly familiar scenario in human smuggling.

The ship, the third off B.C. in five weeks, was spotted yesterday by a Canadian Forces long-range patrol plane nearing Canadian waters off the north coast of Vancouver Island.

Immigration authorities, RCMP officers, the Canadian Coast Guard and National Defence were mobilizing last night in Port Hardy.

“It has the profile of a smugglers’ ship,” said Lieutenant-Commander Gerry Pash, public affairs officer for Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt.

But officials were releasing few details of the movements and location of the suspected smugglers’ ship for fear of the safety of Canadian authorities and passengers.

Port Hardy Mayor Russ Hellberg, citing reports from the RCMP to local officials, said: “The word is to expect 40 [people]. It’s not that big a ship.”

He had no further details.

The ship was detected yesterday by the crew of a CP-140 Aurora aircraft from 407 Maritime Patrol Squadron at CFB Comox while doing routine surveillance.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada had activated a marine-response team to deal with the arrival of the illegal migrants at sea. Jim Redmond, manager of Immigration Canada for Vancouver Island, said he could not comment on the suspected ship or speculate on how many passengers could be aboard.

“It’s really too premature to tell,” he said.

RCMP Constable Tracey Rook said late yesterday: “We’re heading up to the area. I don’t have any details at this time.”

Safety is a concern after the interception earlier this month of another ship from China led to a two-day high-seas chase that resulted in 131 migrants, including 44 children, being dumped by the ship’s crew on a remote beach in the Queen Charlotte Islands. One of the migrants was treated for hypothermia in hospital and another man, believed to be in his early 20s, was never found and is presumed dead after an extensive four-day search of Kunghit Island.

The 131 passengers were malnourished after 60 days at sea, including 10 days spent adrift after a mechanical breakdown.

Another boatload of 123 illegal Chinese migrants arrived at Nootka Sound on July 20. That ship, described as a “death trap,” was pulled ashore near Gold River after it was spotted off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

The arrival of the two ships has sparked an angry backlash against the illegal migrants and debate over Canada’s refugee laws.

The Chinese migrants paid smugglers or “snakeheads” up to $40,000 (U.S.) for a voyage to North America, which they call Gold Mountain. Once here, many owe their smugglers most of their debt and work it off in low-paying jobs.

Police believe both ships are tied to organized crime, and investigations into the human smuggling — the biggest in Canada’s history — are continuing.

The second ship was met by protesters in Port Hardy. A Victoria newspaper ran a front-page headline saying “Go home,” along with a poll in which 97 per cent of respondents favoured deporting the group.

U.S. authorities, meanwhile, are trying to determine whether two other ships of illegal Chinese migrants intercepted earlier this month in the South Pacific, one near Guam and the other near Hawaii, were destined for Canada or the United States.

“There were some signs they might have been going to Canada,” Don Mueller, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said in an interview yesterday. “But we think they were destined for the U.S. The interviewing process is still going on.”

Another shipload of 132 Chinese migrants were found in a smugglers’ ship docked in Savannah, Ga., on Aug. 12.

RCMP are still investigating the organizers behind both ships that arrived in B.C. this summer. The crew of the second ship, which dumped its human cargo, are charged with forcing a person to disembark at sea. The charge, under the Immigration Act, carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail and a $500,000 fine.

SIX SHIPS Five smugglers’ ships carrying a total of about 561 illegal Chinese migrants were intercepted in North American waters between July 20 and Aug. 27. A sixth suspicious ship was spotted yesterday off the north shore of Vancouver Island near Port Hardy.

July 20: A rusty ship carrying 123 Chinese migrants is spotted and towed off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Aug. 11: Another ship carrying 131 Chinese migrants dumps its human cargo on a remote beach on the Queen Charlotte Islands; its captain and crew are later arrested.

Aug. 12: 132 Chinese migrants are discovered in the hold of a ship docked in Savannah, Ga.

Aug. 15: The U.S. Coast Guard intercepts a ship carrying 100 Chinese migrants, some saying they are headed for Vancouver, near the Mariana Islands, south of Japan.

Aug. 27: About 75 Chinese migrants are rescued in a broken-down boat off the South Pacific island of Midway near Hawaii by the U.S. Coast Guard after being adrift for 30 days. Their destination is unknown.

Aug. 30: The Canadian navy spots a suspected smugglers’ ship believed to be carrying Chinese migrants off the north shore of Vancouver Island.

——

Tuesday, August 31, 1999

Forces spot another ship off British Columbia coast Vessel suspected of carrying migrants

Stewart Bell | National Post

Another ship suspected of carrying illegal migrants to Canada has been spotted off the coast of British Columbia.

A Canadian Forces Aurora aircraft sighted the vessel yesterday afternoon during a routine surveillance patrol, but Major Colin Goodman would not confirm whether there are passengers aboard. “For the safety of [our] personnel and those on board the vessel, no details of the ship’s movements or our response to it will be released,” he said in a telephone interview from Victoria.

Maj. Goodman did say that RCMP and Citizenship and Immigration Canada emergency response teams have been dispatched to northern Vancouver Island to deal with what he called “a possible migrant smuggling ship nearing Canadian waters.”

Also yesterday, United States authorities confirmed that another ship was found drifting in the mid-Pacific and Chinese migrants on board the freighter told U.S. immigration officials they were headed for British Columbia when their ship broke down.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said although the 75 migrants now being detained on Midway Island had not yet been thoroughly interviewed, some had named their destination as Canada.

“We’ve heard two different versions, and … one was Canada and the other was the U.S.,” Don Mueller, a spokesman for U.S. immigration, said yesterday.

The 50-metre vessel was the latest known smuggling ship to set sail from China this summer with the intention of ferrying illegal migrants to Canada. Two others made it to the West Coast and one was intercepted by the U.S. Coast Guard.

The broken-down vessel had set sail in June, but ran into mechanical trouble in July and drifted for 30 days before the U.S. Coast Guard picked up a distress call last week. A spotter plane found it last Wednesday and it was towed to Midway.

The passengers are being treated for dehydration and malnutrition. “We’re in the process right now with the public health service of doing screenings, then we’ll start doing interviews,” Mr. Mueller said.

While it is not clear where the ship originated, Mr. Mueller said it had Chinese identification. A likely bet is China’s Fujian province, where the two ships to reach Canada this summer began their journey. “It’s certainly possible, and prior to this we had five boats that were interdicted in April and May that we took to the island Tinian, and those all turned out to be from Fujian province,” he said.

China’s coastal Fujian province has experienced a boom in illegal emigration this year, fuelled by the longing for a better life in the West and by the rise of organized crime figures known as “snakeheads,” who exact huge fees for ferrying migrants to North America by air and sea.

A ship carrying 123 migrants turned up June 20 in Nootka Sound on the west coast of Vancouver Island. On Aug. 11, a second vessel dropped 132 passengers on the Queen Charlotte Islands before leading Canadian military and police on a chase into international waters.

All the passengers have filed refugee claims, although Canadian immigration officials have said those aboard the second boat were mostly economic migrants, seeking better jobs rather than fleeing persecution.

The nine Koreans who piloted the second ship are facing charges, and charges are also expected against the captain and crew of the first vessel. Others among the group have been identified as “enforcers” sent to make sure the migrants paid off their debts to the smugglers.

Janice Harper, a spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada, said the U.S. government had not advised Canada that the ship picked up last week was destined for Canada. She said Canada was currently not tracking any more boats believed to be headed for the B.C. coast.

Mr. Mueller said conditions on board the ship were poor.

“In addition to being adrift they were, from what I understand, short on food and water. And the usual scenario is either no lifeboats or one lifeboat that would hold maybe a half-dozen people for an entire ship full of migrants; so it was, from my understanding, not a very pleasant situation.”

Officials suspect Chinese migrants are using the B.C. coast as a gateway to the United States, taking advantage of the less stringent refugee system to enter Canada and then slipping south across the border, where they work in sweatshops, restaurants and brothels until their debts to the smugglers are paid off.

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Tuesday 31 August 1999 TOP STORIES

Third ship spotted off B.C. coast suspected of carrying migrants

Vancouver Sun

An immigration response team, RCMP and coast guard vessels shadow the ship. Petti Fong Vancouver Sun, with Canadian Press A third ship suspected of carrying migrants was spotted off the B.C. coast Monday afternoon after a routine air patrol found the unmarked vessel heading toward Canadian waters.

Citizenship and Immigration Canada’s marine response team, which dealt with two people-smuggling vessels found earlier this summer, was on its way to an undisclosed location off the north coast of Vancouver Island.

The RCMP and the Canadian Coast Guard cutter Tanu had also been dispatched and small airlines were busy as reporters, photographers and television crews booked late-night flights to northern Vancouver Island.

Port Hardy Mayor Russ Hellberg said Monday night that his community has been on standby to receive the 40 or so migrants suspected to be on the third ship.

“We’ve been told to expect about 40 people and to have our arena ready to help them.”

But reports from various media and government agencies indicated the ship might also be headed south along the Island’s west coast, possibly to Gold River in Nootka Sound, the site of the first boatload’s arrival.

The prospect of yet another boatload of migrants headed for Canada comes as a survey released today indicates Canadians are almost evenly split on whether the migrants should be sent back or whether they should have access to the normal refugee process.

The Angus Reid poll for the Globe and Mail and CTV found 49 per cent of the respondents said the illegal immigrants should be deported to China immediately, while another 49 per cent said the boat people should be allowed to stay until their refugee claims are heard.

The suspect vessel was first seen mid-afternoon Monday by a Canadian military plane, an Aurora 407, during a routine surveillance.

Two sources told The Vancouver Sun on Monday evening that the vessel was found about 90 kilometres off the north end of Vancouver Island.

But CIC’s regional manager George Varnai said Monday that the location of the vessel was not going to be released for safety reasons.

“We are not releasing locations for the sake of the safety of the responding personnel and any passengers on board,” he said. It is not yet known whether the unmarked and unflagged ship is carrying human passengers, but Varnai said the vessel fits the profile of a smuggling ship.

The profile matches two other ships that carried a total of 254 Chinese migrants to B.C. in the last six weeks. The first ship was found off Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island’s west coast with 123 passengers on July 20 and the second was located on the southern tip of the Queen Charlotte Islands Aug. 11. Migrants on both vessels are believed to be from the province of Fujian on the southeastern coast of China.

The second smuggling vessel found this summer was taken to Port Hardy and the passengers disembarked on the federal dock there, where a few residents greeted them with jeers.

Mayor Hellberg said Monday that he doubts a third group of arrivals will be warmly welcomed in his north Island fishing community, where many residents are suffering economic hardship as their industry languishes.

“There’s a few perturbed people here,” he said. “We don’t mind helping people out, but a lot of people think these are queue jumpers and people are getting a little choked.”

All the Chinese migrants aboard the first vessel have claimed refugee status after being escorted off the boat by RCMP and CIC officials. Five of the migrants on the first vessel have been missing since last week and warrants for their arrest were issued. Immigration officials said Monday those claimants are still missing.

On the second ship, which carried 131 people, the migrants were dropped near a rocky shoreline in the Queen Charlottes and told to wade to a nearby beach. Of those, 57 people face possible deportation. The remaining 74 are being assessed as potential refugees. There were 75 minors among the second group of migrants who are now in the care of the provincial ministry for children.

Since the arrival of the two ships, many Canadians have criticized Canada’s immigration policies as too lax, leading to abuses.

Vancouver immigration lawyer Donald Cameron said Monday that Canadian officials have tried to ask other countries for help in stemming the flow.

“Many people know that it’s perfectly legal for them to arrive in Canada and make their claims,” said Cameron. “They know that Canada will give them money to pay their rent while their claims are being processed.”

But Cameron said Canadian officials are facing a “hard sell” in convincing other countries to crack down on people smugglers.

Chinese officials have responded that Canadian policies create an environment that encourages refugee claimants to arrive unannounced and then Canada asks the country of origin to take the migrants off its hands, according to Cameron.

In one of her first official statements, newly appointed federal Immigration Minister Elinor Caplan said she would press countries to cooperate in cracking down on smugglers.

The Angus Reid survey released today found that a slight majority of respondents – 53 per cent – said Canada’s immigration policy made it too easy to be accepted as a refugee. Only eight per cent said the policy was too tough. Meanwhile, 34 per cent said the refugee policy was just about right.

The poll sampled the opinions of 1,502 adult Canadians between Aug. 23-26 and was considered accurate within 2.5 percentage points 19 times out of 20.

Rumours of a number of vessels destined for Canada’s West Coast have swirled since the first ship arrived. It is believed that if any more vessels are heading toward B.C., they will arrive before the end of September to avoid the inclement weather starting in the fall. The first two ships were in poor conditions when found off B.C.’s coast. The state of the third vessel is not yet known.

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