Eight bodies of migrants were found in a marsh on the St. Lawrence River on March 30th. They were found in a Mohawk indigenous territory in Quebec, Canada and were believed to be trying to cross into the United States. The group of migrants consisted of two families. One from Romania, a 28-year-old couple and their two infant children, who a few weeks before had fought a deportation order to be removed from Canada. The other family was from India, an older couple with their two older children, who had been in Canada on visitor visas. They were able to identify the Indian family after a relative notified an Indian newspaper of their relationship. Close to the scene, Akwesasne Police found an abandoned boat that belonged to a local, 30-year-old Casey Oakes. Although the police have not made any connection between Oakes and the bodies, he remains missing. 

The goal of the article is to bring attention to the recent rise in illegal border crossings between the United States and Canada through this tragic event. The journalist, Nadine Yousif, seemed very nonbiased in the article. Along with the information and quotes she included, she also mentioned an event in January 2022, where the bodies of another Indian family were found in a snowy field near the U.S-Canada border, also believed to be trying to enter the US while on visitor visas in Canada. She does not depict immigrants in any positive or negative way and seems to be committed to presenting all the updated facts for the reader. 

The article does not include any statistical and quantitative information until the very end of the article, where she presents information from the US Border Patrol. She says that they have noted a recent uptick of people crossing from Canada. She continues by saying that border patrol apprehended “367 people attempting to cross north to south this January near Montreal,” which is more than the number of similar crossings in the past dozen years combined. Having this information at the end of the article draws attention to the fact that this problem has just recently emerged and is becoming an issue. The author provides context by having this detail at the end of the article because the context is built into the news story already shared. Possible useful additions to the article might include looking at a possible uptick in visitor visas to Canada or looking at the victim’s home countries and seeing possible increases in emigration. This may help provide insight as to other intentions to use visitor visas to cross the border. Also, recent emigration would show possible push factors at home driving the increased asylum-seeking. 

The journalist provides a good amount of qualitative evidence. She includes details from local police on the situation, and where they are at with the investigation. This information shows that the matter is not resolved yet and there is still more to come regarding this story. Also, there are quotes from the Indian family’s relative, explaining how he was able to identify that the victims were his family members all the way from India. This piece of evidence shows the lengths that families are going to travel in order to get into the United States, as the family was seeking a better life and opportunity instead of staying with their family. They could have used some details on possibly why the migrants were unable to successfully cross into the US. The weather could have been a factor, if the waters were too rough for example, or an evaluation on how the eight people died, if it’s available.

In my opinion, the journalist used a reasonable amount of evidence, given that this story is relatively fresh and there is some unknown information. She includes both qualitative and quantitative evidence in her article and provides a clear understanding of the events for any reader. Although we have mainly focused on Latino immigration in class, it’s important to recognize the fact that we do have another border, and it has its own share of problems, too. 

Source

Yousif, Nadine. “Bodies of Migrants Found in St Lawrence River Identified.” BBC News. BBC, April 3, 2023. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-65164432.