National News
A border marker is shown just outside of Emerson, Man. on Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/John Woods
Man facing extradition after family of migrants froze to death at Canada-US border
Published 12:44 PDT, Tue September 16, 2025
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Another man has been arrested in connection with the deaths of a migrant family on the Canada-U.S. border near Emerson, Man., in 2022.
The federal justice department says Fenil Patel was arrested Sept. 5 on an extradition request from the United States.
He is facing a hearing this week in Ontario Superior Court.
Police in India announced in 2023 they were looking for Patel on human trafficking and other charges after a couple and their two children froze to death while trying to walk across the border in a frigid nighttime blizzard.
Two men in the United States — Harshkumar Patel and Steve Shand — were tried and convicted for being part of the smuggling effort south of the border.
A witness told the trial Fenil Patel was a key organizer in human smuggling north of the border and drove the family from Toronto to Winnipeg just before they died trying to cross.
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