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Liberals, Tamil Tigers

Tete a tetes with terrorists

by Judi McLeod, Canadafreepress.com

January 20, 2005

It's a request from Norway--which has been trying to negotiate a peace deal in Sri Lanka's longtime civil war--keeping Canada from adding the Tamil Tigers to its list of banned terrorist organizations.

That's the latest discovery of the Tiger Tamil-tracking National Post.

Norway has supposedly been working on the Sri Lankan peace deal for the past three years. That timeline includes the summer of 2003 when former Norwegian Prime Minister Gro Brundtland, in her capacity as director general of the World Health Organization (WHO) blacklisted the City of Toronto as a travel destination in the WHO-over hyped SaRS scare.

The Toronto tourism industry is feeling the effects of the WHO ban to the present day.

Canada owes no particular allegiance to Norway.

Until it ran into criticism for cozying up to Tamils on Sri Lankan turf, the Canadian government remained mum about the Norwegian recommendation against the Tamil terrorist ban.

The world has come to the rescue of tsunami survivors with cash, food and water.

But weeks after the tragedy, Canada is now owning up to wanting to deliver "rapprochement" between sparring forces in Sri Lanka, along with more conventional forms of relief.

Canadian Foreign affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew said the government decided to send the military's Disaster assistance Response Team (DaRT) to the Sri Lankan region of ampara because it is one way to get aid to Tamils as well as the majority Sinhalese.

In its peer group, Canada stands alone in providing support and succor to the Tamil Tigers. The United States, Britian and australia have added the Tigers to their registries of banned terrorist organizations. Ignoring persistent criticism for the past two years, Ottawa has failed to follow suit.

In fact, the minority status Canadian Liberal government has stoutly defended its refusal to list the Tigers as terrorists, claiming that it does not want to upset the fragile ceasefire between the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) and the Sri Lankan government that went into effect in February, 2002.

Only this week, both Pettigrew and Prime Minister Paul Martin reinforced their goal of not wanting to do anything to disrupt the "fragile" peace process.

In Colombo, Sri Lanka on Monday, Martin took it upon himself to hold T'te t'tes with the political wing of Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger insurgents. The Tamil talks included the participation of two leaders who were last year denied entry to Canada for suspected terrorist links.

There is no doubt that the Liberals, facing another date with the polls courtesy of last June's minority status, draw support from the 250,000-strong Tamil-Canadian community–the largest Tamil Diaspora in the world.

In Sri Lanka, Pettigrew was laying claim to widespread international support for Canada not banning the Tamil Tigers. He could not specify for reporters from which countries.

When Canada's spy agency, CSIS, asked the government to ban the Tigers in 2003, Pettigrew's predecessor Bill Graham blocked the request.

Martin and a bevy of Liberal MPs, including Maria Minna attended a Tamil fundraising event in Toronto in 2000 that some critics contend was nothing more than a front for the Tigers.

Tigers are active in close to a dozen Toronto-area election ridings.

In ampora, Tamil MPs urged Martin to restore temporary charitable status to the Tamils Relief Organization in Canada, which was banned from raising money under a UN convention against terrorist fundraising adopted after 9/11.

Martin made no commitment and denied that meeting the Tamil leaders and the TRO executive director sends a message to Revenue Canada to approve their request to raise charitable funds for tsunami relief efforts.

as a self-professed peacemaker, Paul Martin makes a good harbour for terrorists.

See today's Editor's Desk,Flat Mark Martin in Sri Lanka.


Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com


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