National Post- Editorial : 9 June 2000

Duped by FACT


National Post 

For 17 years, a quarrel has raged in a faraway country between
people of whom we know nothing. The country is Sri Lanka, and
the people are the Sinhalese and the Tamils. Nevertheless, Canada
is involved in this conflict -- like it or not. 

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) is one of the world's
most ruthless terrorist organizations -- a point of unanimous
agreement by the U.S. State Department, the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service and terrorism experts around the world. Like all
totalitarian outfits, it deliberately targets civilians and terrorizes Tamil
areas under its control. Earlier this week, in an attack condemned
by the U.S., Canada, India and Britain, a suicide bomber killed 21
civilians and a government minister in Colombo during a war
memorial day. Aside from its assassination and maiming of Sri
Lankan and Indian politicians, the LTTE has murdered hundreds of
civilians in suicide attacks, extorted money from the very Tamils it
claims to represent, and is responsible for the deaths of roughly
60,000 people in its campaign for an ethnically cleansed,
independent Tamil state. In no sense can the Sri Lankan crisis be
compared to a morally neutral "civil war": This is a gang of
mass-murderers attempting to overturn the democratically elected,
peaceful government of a Commonwealth nation. 

Canada's role in the matter is that LTTE fundraising -- some
$22-millions' worth -- is tolerated here. The money is then diverted
abroad to buy weapons. As documented by the National Post,
through the agency of the Federation of Associations of Canadian
Tamils (FACT), which has been identified by numerous security
bureaus as a front organization for the LTTE, Canada is one of the
most important hubs for harnessing political and economic support
for LTTE in a sophisticated global structure. 

Fortunately, in January, the Federal Court of Appeal (ruling on the
deportation of a FACT co-ordinator) went some way toward
stopping the flow of funds when it declared that those who raise
money for terrorism are just as culpable as those who actually plant
the bomb bought with the money. 

This judgment was followed up the next month when Lloyd
Axworthy, the Foreign Affairs Minister, signed the International
Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism,
which is aimed at preventing terrorist organizations from fundraising
in signatory states. Indeed, yesterday, referring to the convention,
Mr. Axworthy reiterated to the House of Commons that he has "no
tolerance" for groups that raise money in Canada for terrorism and
promised to criminalize the practice. 

At the time, nonetheless, this newspaper was skeptical about how
effective signing yet another convention -- it was Canada's 13th
counterterrorism agreement -- would be. This is owing to the
weakness of domestic legislation, which allows a charge of
conspiracy to be laid only if a clear connection can be traced
between Canadian funds and illegal activity abroad. Since
fundraising organizations often pose as wholly philanthropic -- like
FACT, for example -- making such a connection was well-nigh
impossible. (In the U.S., by way of comparison, the 1996
Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act states that once a
group has been designated a foreign terrorist organization, it is an
offence to knowingly provide to it material support or resources.) 

Judging by the behaviour of Paul Martin, the Finance Minister, and
other politicians who attended a FACT fundraising dinner last
month, we were right to be skeptical. Mr. Martin went so far as to
describe those who criticized his attendance as "anti-Canadian." The
minister is confusing Canada's tradition of tolerance with a
relativistic and naive attitude that somehow it is anti-Canadian to
criticize a terrorist group. Has he not read any of the
counterterrorism conventions his government has signed? Rule One:
Combatting terrorism requires unreserved moral condemnation and
opprobrium from democratic nations, not waffle. 

Mr. Martin has made excuses long enough. It is time he, and the
other ministers and politicians who went to the dinner, admitted that
they were duped by FACT and that they will henceforth strive to
live up to Mr. Axworthy's commitments.