The next time a judge, a lawyer or a cop breaks out into the mantra that people smugglers will be punished to the fullest extent of the law, tell them you have heard that joke before.

Here are two stories that illustrate what our justice system says it is doing and what it actually does to deter people smugglers.

The first involves three Filipino sailors who helped smuggle three Chinese nationals into B.C. last month.

They were all sailors with a British registered vessel Jervis Bay and have families in the Philippines, which is their home country.

When the ship was in drydock in Thailand they were approached by a well dressed Chinese national who asked them if they would take aboard and conceal three Chinese migrants until the ship docked in Vancouver.

The sailors were to be paid US$10,000 for their troubles of hiding the Chinese nationals under their bunks and in their bathrooms during the two-week journey.

In addition to the US$10,000, the illegal migrants apparently paid US$30,000 to someone for the passage which they thought would take them to New York.

The journey went well despite the ship's captain noticing the three sailors were cooking and eating a lot of food.

On arrival in Vancouver, the Chinese migrants hopped into a cab at the Delta port. An eagle-eyed cabbie suspected something amiss and called the cops.

The cops busted the three who promptly pointed their fingers at the sailors.

The sailors were taken to jail on Oct 6. Since then crown counsel was waiting for the green light from the office of the Attorney General of Canada to charge the sailors with people smuggling an offence that carries the maximum fine of one million dollars and life in jail.

But for some mysterious and probably bureaucratic blunder, the consent did not come.

In the end, on Oct 31, an exasperated provincial court judge sentenced them to three months jail each for the lesser offence of inducing errors into the Refugee and Immigration Act.

"The facts in this case are more consistent with a charge under section 117(1) of the Act which makes it an offence to knowingly aid or abet the coming into Canada of persons who are not in possession of a visa, passport or other document required by the Act.

Section 117(4) requires that proceedings for an offence under section 117(1) cannot be instituted except with the consent of the Attorney General for Canada."

"That consent has not yet been obtained in spite of the fact that the accused have been in custody since their arrest on October 6," wrote the judge.

So much for deterring opportunistic sailors who, motivated by greed, get involved with the heinous crime of people smuggling.

As for the three illegal Chinese nationals, they have joined the ever growing queue at the refugee claimant's office.

Here is another tale for you to show our so-called deterrent measures to combat people smuggling.

In the last issue of the Asian Pacific Post, we brought you the story of two Vietnamese women who entered Canada illegally at the Vancouver International Airport.

The two had altered their passports and were being guided by a Thai man, who was their designated babysitter.

He apparently arranged for the two women to enter Canada and brought them from Australia.

One of the women claims that she unknowingly married into a heroin mob in Vietnam and faces the death sentence if returned.

Her husband, she claims, is in jail waiting to be executed.

Kudos to the immigration officials who nabbed the group at the airport.

The two women were detained, led to an immigration inquiry and then released on C$5,000 bond to reappear before a tribunal.

As for the people smuggler who brought the two women into Canada - he was told to go home on the next plane.