Arrest at U.S. border makes Canadians question use of refugee law

Published: 2007-10-02

TORONTO (CNS) -- The arrest of a U.S. refugee worker at the Canadian border has prompted criticism of what some call the misapplication of a Canadian law. Janet Hinshaw-Thomas, founder of the Pennsylvania-based PRIME-Ecumenical Commitment to Refugees, was charged with people-smuggling as she delivered 12 Haitian asylum seekers to the border post at Lacolle, Quebec, Sept. 28. A court date has been scheduled for Nov. 30. The 65-year-old grandmother of four has been working with refugees in Pennsylvania since 1983. She is the granddaughter of the late U.S. Secretary of State John Foster Dulles and niece of U.S. Cardinal Avery Dulles, who has said he is willing to testify on her behalf. Hinshaw-Thomas spent a night in jail before being released on $5,000 bail and being warned to be on good behavior. Immigration lawyers and refugee rights advocates in Canada expressed shock that a law intended to punish criminal gangs who have sent people drifting toward Canadian shores in rusty hulks or lured vulnerable women into the sex trade is being applied to a humanitarian.

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