Canada intercepts shipload of migrants

VICTORIA, British Columbia, Oct. 18 (UPI) -- Canadian officials say they are investigating a suspected case of people smuggling off the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police officials say they intercepted a rusting ship carrying 76 men Friday afternoon in the Strait of Juan de Fuca between Vancouver Island and Washington state, the Victoria Times Colonist reported.

The newspaper said an RCMP boarding party commandeered the ship without incident and later guided it to Ogden Point in Victoria, where the Canadian Border Services Agency assumed control of the vessel and the passengers on board.

The Colonist reported that Canadian Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan indicated it's likely the passengers were from Sri Lanka, where a civil war between the government and Tamil separatists ended this year in the Tamils' defeat.