Canada

Brunthan Nadarajah
is seen in this photo
made available
by his parents.







Nadarajah's parents spoke
with CTV News
about their son's efforts t
o save his friend's life.





Grieving family facing deportation to Sri Lanka

toronto.ctv.ca

With the grief of losing their young son still fresh, the family of a boy who drowned in a partially frozen Scarborough pond is also facing the prospect of being deported from Canada.

Brunthan Nadarajah, 11, died while trying to save a friend who had plunged through thin ice 10 metres from shore.

Kishoban Alakeswaran, 15, is in critical condition at Toronto's Hospital for Sick Children.

While the family -- which includes two other sons and two daughters -- copes with their tragic loss, they are also worried about their future in Canada.

"We still don't have status," father Muralidaran Nadarajah told The Globe and Mail.

The family is currently fighting a deportation order in federal court that would send them back to Sri Lanka.

Nadarajah has been in Canada since the late 1990s. The family's refugee claim has been rejected, The Globe reported.

Now they are trying to cope with the loss of Brunthan while at the same time feeling proud about the young boy's final act of heroism.

At about 3:15 p.m. Sunday both boys were on their way to a pick-up soccer game. The frozen pond was a popular short-cut to the soccer pitch.

The older boy plunged through the thin ice that covered the pond. The younger boy tried to pull his friend from the water, only to break through himself.

"He was the only person who went and tried to rescue him," Brunthan's father said Monday.

"I miss him so much. We miss him so much."

After an agonizing search, rescuers managed to pull both boys from the icy water and rush them to hospital.

Brunthan did not survive. Paramedics managed to revive Alakeswaran, who is clinging to life at the Hospital for Sick Children.

Ctv