A 32-year-old who survived sailing in Arctic waters trying to sneak back into Canada will find himself in an Ottawa court Tuesday, reports the Ottawa Sun.
Florin Fodor was headed for Toronto to be with family in September, but to get there he chose navigating a 20-foot fibreglass boat from Greenland to an Inuit village in Nunavut.
Fodor is in custody in Ottawa awaiting sentencing.
Cpl. Tim Waters, one of the RCMP officers met Fodor in Grise Fiord when the tiny white boat broke through the fog and arrived in Nunavut.
"That would be a heck of a trip considering one boat, only one motor on the boat and one person," Waters told the Ottawa Sun. "It would've been a pretty hard journey."
Fodor was arrested under the Immigration Act and was turned over to border officials.
Alarm bells went off when RCMP realized Fodor was deported from Canada in 2000 for a series of criminal convictions.
Fodor is believed to have travelled more than 1,000 km in a boat he purchased in Sisimiut, Greenland after flying there from Romania. He set course for Canada on Sept. 11.
When the boat poked through the mist on Sept. 18 in Gris Fiord, it created quite a spectacle.
"Someone just hasn't boated in from Greenland before," Waters said.
"When he landed he was cold and I think he was glad to get here. The last part of his voyage, I guess was pretty rough."
RCMP discovered Fodor only had about five litres of fuel and little food.
Chris Kealey of the Canadian Border Services Agency said border staff can't remember a case as unique as this.
"We're hoping we get a good sentence so it will serve as a deterrence for everyone else," he said.
Grise Fiord "refugee" to court
Florin Fodor is believed to have travelled more than 1,000 km in a boat he purchased in Greenland after flying there from Romania. He set course for Canada on Sept. 11.
Published: 12.11.2006 14:30
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