Statement from the Canadian Coalition for Democracies

Toronto, Canada, Saturday, 8 April 2006 - The National Post today reported that the government of Stephen Harper has added the Tamil Tigers to Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations.

Since its founding in 2003, the Canadian Coalition for Democracies (CCD) has urged the Canadian government to designate the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization. Our campaign intensified when Sri Lanka’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Mr. Lakshman Kadirgamar informed CCD about the $200,000 monthly the Tigers were suspected of raising in Canada, much of it through extortion and criminal activity within the Tamil community. The Minister had also informed us of Sri Lanka’s request to the government of Canada to apply this designation. On the 13 August, 2005, a few months after CCD had last spoken to Minister Kadirgamar, he was assassinated outside his home. Even after this horrific incident, Canada did not follow the lead of the EU, UK, India, and the USA in designating the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization.

Canada has been the largest source of foreign funding for the Tigers’ slaughter of innocent Sri Lankans, a situation that the former government failed to address. The reluctance to apply terrorist designation was apparently in deference to the large Tamil voting block in Toronto.

The Honourable Stockwell Day, Minister of Public Safety, and the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, should be commended for this outcome. Mr. Day championed an ethical foreign policy and terrorist designation for the Tamil Tigers while in Official Opposition, and Mr. MacKay courageously called for banning the Tigers during the recent election. As members of the government, both these men have delivered on their promises.

The Canadian Coalition for Democracies commends Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his government for putting democracy and human life ahead of domestic votes.

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