*春色直播

The agency said Ogulcan Mersin, 25, and Dogan Alakus and Firat Yuksek, both 31, have been charged with inducing, aiding or abetting someone to commit an offence under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act as well as assisting people to enter Canada outside of a designated customs office.

RCMP spokesperson Charles Poirier said police intercepted a cube van at around 2:20 a.m. on Sunday after receiving information about a group of migrants planning to cross the border from the United States.

He said the migrants included a pregnant woman and children as young as four. They were dehydrated, "visibly distraught" and in cramped conditions when police found them, he added.聽

鈥淭here wasn't a lot of air for them to breathe, no one had any water, and with the kids and the tight space they couldn't sit on the ground, they had to stand,鈥� he said Monday in a phone interview. 鈥淛ust horrific conditions, really, that they were basically left in.鈥澛�

The vast majority of the truck passengers were Haitian nationals, he said, adding that they told officers they had crossed the border on foot, walking for two hours until the truck picked them up.聽

Despite the poor conditions and dehydration, Poirier said none of their lives were believed to be in immediate danger.聽

CBSA said most of the foreign nationals were transferred to the CBSA鈥檚 refugee processing centre in St-Bernard-de-Lacolle where they are subject to immigration examinations.

The agency did not say what happened to the remaining foreign nationals, citing privacy reasons.

The agency said the three suspects will remain detained until their case returns to court on Wednesday.

The investigation is ongoing and more charges could be laid, the agency added.

Poirier said it鈥檚 the first time he's heard of such a large number of migrants being intercepted at once in Quebec, and expressed concern that a tragedy could occur if big groups become a more common.

鈥淚f you think of everything that could have gone wrong, if the truck had been involved in a motor vehicle collision, if the migrants were trapped with no air in the truck. Luckily none of that happened but it could have happened,鈥� he said. 鈥淪o that's why we鈥檙e very fortunate and we're actually really happy that this information we got was reliable and that we managed to rescue them.鈥澛�

This report by 春色直播was first published Aug. 4, 2025.