The Foreign Minister of Sri Lanka, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar, was today assassinated in Colombo, his nation’s capital. According to the BBC, he was a member of the minority Tamil community and a determined opponent of the Tamil Tiger (LTTE) separatist rebels. There is little doubt that this murder was the work of the Tamil Tigers, a terrorist organization whose civil war has led to the death of over 60,000 Sri Lankans.

“Canada has failed to designate the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, despite a history of unspeakable violence,” said Alastair Gordon, President of the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD). “As a result, much of the preventable death and suffering in Sri Lanka is directly funded from Canada through organized crime and donations.”

 

Many other Western nations have designated the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, but it continues to operate legally in Canada. As a result, Canada is one of the largest sources of foreign funding for terrorism in Sri Lanka.
 
When asked in February why Canada refused to apply terrorist designation to the Tamil Tigers, Justice Minister Irwin Cotler said, "Toronto I think has the largest number of Tamils ... outside of Sri Lanka, so we've got to be very careful just in terms of our own relationships." Minister Cotler appeared to judge the atrocities of the Tamil Tigers against the number of Tamil voters in Canada.
 
But a week later, Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew contradicted the Justice Minister. Appearing before the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade and asked why he had not designated the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization, he said, "Most of the people we've been consulting, including the United States State Department ... are demanding that we do not do it at this time."
 
However, the State Department would not back up Minister Pettigrew. When contacted, a senior US State Department spokesperson was puzzled. "The U.S. government designated LTTE [Tamil Tigers] as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997… [Terrorist designation] is a decision for the Canadian government to make alone." Officials at the U.S. embassy in Ottawa were likewise surprised by Mr. Pettigrew's claim.
 
In light of today’s tragic events, it is sad to note that at the time Sri Lanka's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Lakshman Kadirgamar, was even bolder: "No. I can tell you for sure that this government has not asked any foreign government not to designate the LTTE as a terrorist organization .. It is not up to the Sri Lanka Government to prescribe policy for them… It [has been] reported that the LTTE raised approximately $200,000 a month from the Tamil community in Canada." 
 
“Now that they have seen the handiwork of an organization that operates legally in Canada, will Pierre Pettigrew and Irwin Cotler stop making conflicting excuses, and immediately apply terrorist designation to the Tamil Tigers?” asked Gordon.

 

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For additional information, please contact:
 
Alastair Gordon
President 
Canadian Coalition for Democracies
PO Box 72602
345 Bloor Street East
Toronto, ON  M4W 3J0 Canada
 
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Email:  admin@CanadianCoalition.com

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Backgrounder:

 

Feds' Tiger tales don't add up - Pettigrew's claims undermined by Sri Lanka and US State Department

http://canadiancoalition.com/nationalpost109/ATG_FedTigerTalesDontAddUp.html

 

Irwin Cotler's fall from grace over support for Tamil terrorists

http://canadiancoalition.com/nationalpost102/ATG_LetterReCotlerAndTigers.html