A Quebec Superior Court judge has decided Stephanie Square, the Akwesasne resident arrested last year as a suspect in the deaths of a family of four who drowned during an attempt to smuggle them into the U.S. across the St. Lawrence River, should be extradited to the U.S. to face charges there.
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In a decision made Thursday at the Montreal courthouse, Justice Gregory Moore also ruled that Rahsontanohstha Delormier, Square’s alleged accomplice in the human smuggling effort, should also face justice in the U.S.
Moore ordered that Square and Delormier be committed into custody to await surrender to U.S. authorities. Square was already detained at a detention centre in Laval and followed the decision through a video conference.
The judge said the surrender will not happen for at least 30 days because both can appeal the decision. They can also ask Canada’s justice minister to not allow the surrender.
Square is alleged to have tried to smuggle four members of a Romanian family: Florin Iordache, his wife, Cristina (Monalisa) Zenaida Iordache, their two-year-old daughter Evelin and one-year-old son Elyen into the U.S. They were among the nine people who drowned on March 29, 2023.
The other five people who drowned in the botched smuggling operation were Akwesasne resident Casey Oakes and a family from the western Indian state of Gujarat. They included the father, Praveenbhai Chaudhari, 50; mother, Dakshaben, 45; son, Meet, 20; and daughter, Vidhi, 23.
Square is not alleged to have tried to smuggle them.
The attempt to smuggle the eight people across the border from Akwesasne ended in disaster when the boat used for the operation apparently sank in freezing waters.
Square is alleged to have purchased the boat to have the family transported across the St. Lawrence River and to have hired someone to steer the boat.
“She was in regular communication between the person hired to drive the family to the boat, the driver of the boat and the person who would pick the family up after they crossed the river and would have driven the family to the U.S.,” the judge said while summarizing the evidence. “We know that the Romanian family drowned in bad weather.”
In Delormier’s case, he is alleged to have purchased a boat and was supposed to drive the family at some point, but he experienced engine trouble and ended up stranded on an island.
Both face charges of conspiring to commit alien smuggling, alien smuggling for profit and alien smuggling resulting in death.
Square and Delormier argued that the latter charge has no equal in Canadian law. They also argued that because the victims died in Canadian waters, an alleged crime was not committed in the United States and that a trial in Canada would be more appropriate.
Moore also denied a motion through which Square requested that a Gladuu report be produced in her case. A Gladuu report is requested to provide background information about an Indigenous person who is facing sentencing or a bail hearing in a criminal case in Canada. The report is used to help judges consider how systemic factors and the Indigenous person’s life experiences may affect their sentence.
Moore ruled that a Gladuu report does not apply in an extradition case.