Liberal legacy of partisan power-mongering politics quashed. The concern and action on behalf of Canada and Canada’s national security and for world peace… returns.
Group added to Canada’s terror list
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Saturday, April 08, 2006TORONTO – The Tamil Tigers have been added to Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations, the National Post has learned.
The designation was to be finalized yesterday, a day after Cabinet met to accept a recommendation from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
An official announcement was scheduled for Monday.
The Tigers are the 39th terrorist group to be outlawed under the Anti-Terrorism Act, and the first added to the list by the new Conservative government.
The move was spearheaded by Stockwell Day, the Minister of Public Safety, who in opposition repeatedly condemned the Liberals for not outlawing the Tigers.
The decision means it will now be a criminal offence to participate in the activities of the Tamil Tigers, formally known as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, or LTTE, a Sri Lankan separatist group responsible for more than 160 suicide bombings. For example, anyone convicted of financially supporting the Tigers could be imprisoned for up to 10 years.
[…] Although the Tigers are one of the most active terrorist groups in Canada, the Liberals had refused to outlaw their activities, some say because the party was afraid of angering Tamil-Canadian voters in Toronto.
The situation had proved frustrating for the RCMP, CSIS and local police forces, which have long been investigating the Tigers’ Canadian fundraising and support networks.
[…] Canada’s closest intelligence allies, the United States and Britain, long ago placed the Tamil Tigers on their lists of designated terrorist groups, but the Liberal government resisted.
On three separate occasions, CSIS asked the Cabinet to list the Tigers, most recently a year ago, but the Liberals would not do so, saying they did not want to interfere with Sri Lanka’s peace process.
The former Canadian ambassador to Sri Lanka, Martin Collacott, said the previous government’s refusal to outlaw the Tigers left the LTTE relatively free to operate in Canada. He said that has actually hindered peace efforts.
“Once Canada designates the Tigers as terrorists and clamps down on their fundraising, they are much more likely to enter into serious negotiations with Colombo,” he said.
He said the Liberal position that banning the Tigers would hurt peace efforts was based on partisan political considerations.
“The Tigers and their supporters in Canada and particularly Toronto had become adept at delivering votes from the Tamil community to Liberal candidates at election time,” he said.
“And, as long as this support continued, the Liberals were prepared to let the Tigers have virtual free rein to carry out their activities in this country.”
PTBC was founded by Mr. Johannesen in 2000.
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