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|title=The Boat People

|sort=Boat People

|isbn=9780385542296

|website=http://sharonbala.com/

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Among the 500 Sri Lankans in a rickety boat making its way to Vancouver Island are Mahindan and his six-year-old son Sellian. When the boat arrives the Canadian authorities take all the passengers into custody, placing the women and children in a separate facility from the men. A gruelling series of hearings will decide on the fate of each individual or family: whether they will be allowed to stay in Canada, or deported back to Sri Lanka. The government fears that up to half of these asylum-seekers may have links to the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist group, so judges are instructed to have a firm hand.

There is always a danger of history repeating itself, but getting to know individual refugees and forming compassionate connections is one key way to replace stereotypes with real knowledge. 'Fresh off the boat' is an insult Kumi used to hear as she walked down the street, and it could be literally applied to Mahindan and his fellow asylum-seekers. But as the epigraph from Martin Luther King, Jr. so perfectly expresses, 'We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now.'

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