Tamil Tigers trying to influence politicians: CSIS report

Group waging a 'propaganda campaign'

Stewart Bell, National Post
TORONTO -- The Tamil Tigers have been waging an intensive "propaganda campaign" in Canada to win the backing of politicians, says a newly declassified intelligence report.

The Sri Lankan guerrilla group has "spent considerable effort and resources in Canada and elsewhere" on a lobbying and advocacy campaign, the "secret" report says.

"The main targets of the campaign in Canada have been the expatriate Tamil population, politicians and the general public," says the report by the federal government's threat-assessment centre.
The report was obtained by the National Post yesterday after several Liberal MPs attended a ceremony on Monday honouring a Tamil Tigers guerrilla boss killed in an air strike.

The Toronto-area MPs who attended the commemoration for Brigadier S.P. Thamilselvan, the slain deputy leader of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), said they were only there to urge peace.

The lobby campaign aims to portray the Tigers' independence struggle as legitimate, the intelligence report says. But it calls violence "central" to the guerrillas' strategy. "As well as conventional guerrilla warfare in Sri Lanka, the LTTE uses terrorist activities to achieve its goals."

The report also says that in addition to political lobbying, behind the scenes the Tigers use more unsavory methods to advance their cause in Canada.

"The LTTE's responses to external criticism and internal dissent have included beatings, death threats and smear campaigns in Canada and elsewhere, and specific and non-specific threats of harm against Canadian citizens and residents, their businesses and possessions, and their relatives in Sri Lanka," the report says.

"Murders have occurred in other Western countries, but are not known to have occurred in Canada. Tamils who fail to support the LTTE have been labelled as 'traitors.' ... Tamil victims have been reluctant to come forward to the police with regard to these activities due to their fear of retribution."

The report was written by the Integrated Threat Assessment Centre, a federal agency based at Canadian Security Intelligence Service headquarters in Ottawa that monitors threats to Canada's security.

A partly censored version was obtained by the National Post under the Access to Information Act. It was declassified on Oct. 30 -- three days before Mr. Thamilselvan's death. The full title was blacked out.

The Tigers are waging a civil war in Sri Lanka that seeks independence for the island's ethnic Tamil minority. While the fighting is far from Canada's shores, Toronto is home to the largest Sri Lankan Tamil population outside South Asia, and the Tigers operate a significant support network here.

"In Canada, the major activity of the LTTE and associated organizations has been fundraising in support of their efforts in Sri Lanka. It is estimated that 95% of the LTTE's operational revenue is generated outside Sri Lanka," the report says.

David Poopalapillai, national spokesman for the Canadian Tamil Congress, said yesterday he was not aware of efforts by the Tamil Tigers to lobby politicians in Canada.

"We [Canadian Tamils] do go after politicians, but LTTE, I have no evidence," he said. "I'm not directed by LTTE or anybody else. I have my own conviction. I strongly feel the Tamils in Sri Lanka have been oppressed for a long time."

Martin Collacott, a former Canadian high commissioner to Sri Lanka and a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, said the Tigers are clearly trying to influence MPs.

"It is apparent that there is lobbying going on, and probably increasing lobbying," he said. "I'm hardly surprised, and the mere fact that they're operating so openly suggests that our effectiveness in dealing with terrorists and their supporters is still pretty limited."

The Canadian government has dealt three major blows to the Tigers since last year: Ottawa outlawed the group under the Anti-Terrorism Act; the RCMP raided the LTTE's alleged fundraising fronts in Toronto and Montreal; and police arrested several accused LTTE arms dealers.

"Each of these events has resulted in protests of its appropriateness, lobbying of politicians and others to reverse the actions taken, opposing propaganda, or claimed dissociation of LTTE-associated organizations from the persons directly involved," the report says.

National Post
sbell@nationalpost.com