Gemunu Amarasinghe, The Associated PressSoldiers search the area of a bomb blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday. A suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber set off explosives killing at least 21 people, including a cabinet minister.
Friday, June 09, 2000
Axworthy to stanch terror funds flowStewart Bell and Justine Hunter
National Post
The government moved swiftly yesterday to repair the political damage caused by Wednesday's deadly suicide bombing in Sri Lanka, announcing that it would amend the Criminal Code if necessary to stop terrorist fundraising in Canada.
Following the blast in Colombo, which killed a cabinet minister, his wife and 21 bystanders, Canada's Foreign Minister, Lloyd Axworthy, told the House of Commons that he had "no tolerance" for groups raising money here for violence and would ensure that such practices were criminalized.
He said Ottawa had helped draft, and has signed, a United Nations agreement outlawing terrorist fundraising, and added: "There may have to be amendments in order to provide for the requirements of that legislation, and that's what the government is working on now."
His comments followed a statement by Lawrence MacAulay, the Solicitor-General, denouncing Wednesday's assassination of C.V. Gooneratne, the Sri Lankan Industry Minister, by a member of the Black Tigers, the Tamil Tigers suicide squad.
"The government of Canada and the people of Canada deplore yesterday's act of terrorism, which claimed 21 lives in Sri Lanka," Mr. MacAulay told the House. "The government strongly condemns terrorism and any group that uses violence to forward their goals."
Paul Martin, the Finance Minister, did not respond to questions about his participation in a May 6 dinner hosted by a group that has been widely identified as a fundraising front for the Tigers. Mr. Martin earlier accused critics of being "anti-Canadian."
The Canadian Alliance yesterday questioned the government's commitment to fighting terrorism, saying that despite its condemnations, active fundraising was continuing by groups such as the Tamil Tigers. The Alliance cited a report in the National Post saying Canada's ambassador to Sri Lanka had admitted fundraising was taking place.
"CSIS, the RCMP, the U.S. State Department, our own diplomats all say that the fundraising continues apace and has reached a huge amount of dollars every year that is sent from here to help fund terrorist organizations there," said Chuck Strahl, the Canadian Alliance MP.
Jim Abbot, the Alliance solicitor-general critic, said although Canada had signed the U.N. agreement outlawing terrorist financing, the practice continues. "In spite of the piece of paper that the minister was talking about, these organizations continue to collect money. They tell us it's over $20-million a year," he said.
A man with explosives strapped to his body approached Mr. Gooneratne at a War Heroes Day parade in a suburb of the capital city Colombo and set off the bomb while he was hugging the minister. Two more people died yesterday, including the minister's wife. Another 60 were recovering from injuries.
The bombing appears to be the work of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), or Tamil Tigers, which has killed hundreds of politicians and civilians with suicide bombs. The terrorist group has been fighting for 17 years for independence for Sri Lanka's ethnic Tamil minority.
The attack was widely condemned by world leaders, including Kofi Annan, the U.N. Secretary-General, who said he was "profoundly shocked." Amnesty International also condemned the bombing and urged the LTTE to stop killing innocent civilians.
The United States said the "LTTE's legacy of bombing assassinations, massacres and torture has alienated the people of Sri Lanka and the international community, and has done nothing to promote the legitimate needs and aspirations of the Sri lankan Tamils."
Following the attack, the Sri Lankan parliament extended for another month a countrywide state of emergency, which gives police and government forces sweeping powers to arrest and detain suspects.
Another 12 people were killed in skirmishes yesterday. The LTTE also assassinated a prominent member of a moderate Tamil political party and killed a 33-year-old man who had refused to join the rebel force, the government said.
Police said the bomber used 1.5 kilograms of plastic explosives. According to intelligence sources, the LTTE bought a huge cache of explosives from Ukraine in 1994, which was paid for using the bank account of a Canadian. The explosives are still in use, the sources said.
CSIS and the RCMP say the Tamil Tigers have an extensive fundraising network in Canada that raises money through rallies, crime and front organizations to finance the purchase of weapons. Tigers supporters are planning a rally at Toronto's Molson Amphitheatre this weekend.
Mr. Axworthy signed the UN agreement, which aims to cut off funds for terrorist groups, in February. But department officials said yesterday they are still reviewing existing laws to determine how Canada would abide by the UN convention and would not even say if draft legislation is in the works.
"We intend to ratify this as soon as possible," a foreign affairs department official said. He declined to say whether legislation would be introduced this year.
Canada is one of 16 countries to endorse the International Convention on the Suppression of Financing of Terrorism, but it must be ratified by 22 countries to come into effect.
Thursday, June 08, 2000
Canadian cash flow confirmed as Tigers kill 21Stewart Bell
National Post, with files from The Associated Press
|
Gemunu Amarasinghe, The Associated Press Soldiers search the area of a bomb blast in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday. A suspected Tamil rebel suicide bomber set off explosives killing at least 21 people, including a cabinet minister. |
The attack, which injured 60 people on the country's first-ever War Heroes Day, came just a day after Ruth Archibald, Canada's High Commissioner, admitted at a national conference that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) were active in Canada.
She said: "Probably none of the monies collected by the LTTE in Canada ended up in Sri Lanka, but may be going towards the purchase of arms in other countries. We need the co-operation of other countries to look into this."
Ms. Archibald said that while the United States bans terrorist groups such as the Tigers, "it is difficult to do so" in Canada because the Charter of Rights protects freedom of association. The Sri Lankan government also said in a statement yesterday there was ample evidence the Tigers were using Canada as a fundraising base.
Canada is coming under increasing pressure to curb terrorist support activities. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP have warned that the LTTE has established extensive fundraising networks in Canada that are being used to collect money to finance weapons purchases.
The National Post has documented recently how Tamil Tiger supporters in Canada raise funds through migrant smuggling, passport fraud, organized crime, front organizations and rallies at Toronto-area public schools featuring men in camouflage uniforms carrying mock assault rifles.
They are also planning civil war celebrations this weekend at the city's Molson Amphitheatre.
A recent report by a terrorism expert estimated that the Tigers collected more than $22-million in Canada last year. The money is being funnelled to bank accounts in Europe and Asia and used to supply arms to the rebels, the report said.
Last week, the Liberals were questioned repeatedly in the House of Commons by the Canadian Alliance over why two cabinet ministers, Paul Martin and Maria Minna, attended a dinner hosted by a group that has been widely identified as a fundraising front for the Tigers.
The federal government signed a United Nations agreement in February against terrorist fundraising, but has yet to table a law that would outlaw the practice.
The Tamil Tigers have not claimed responsibility for the latest attack, but suicide bombings have been their trademark tactic. Such bombings have been used to destabilize Sri Lanka, located off the southern tip of India, and to assassinate politicians such as former Indian prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
More than 60,000 people have been killed in 17 years of fighting between Sri Lankan government security forces and the Tigers, who want independence for the nation's ethnic Tamil minority. Canada considers the Tigers to be terrorists because of their brutal methods.
During a parade yesterday to collect donations for Sri Lankan government troops, a man believed to be a member of the Black Tigers suicide squad detonated explosives strapped to his body after embracing C.V. Gooneratne, 65, the Industry Minister.
Four men were arrested.
A government statement said the motive for the bombing was to mar "a day that was specially meant to pay tribute to the war heroes battling to maintain the ... territorial integrity of the nation." War Heroes Day was declared to boost the morale of the 40,000 troops fighting the rebels in the northern Jaffna peninsula.
Before the bombing, traffic in the capital had stopped as people observed two minutes of silence. Chandrika Kumaratunga, the President, said in a televised speech: "This is the most sacred moment for the nation."
Jehan Perera of the Peace Council, an independent think-tank, said the bombing was probably the Tigers' response to the holiday. He said Mr. Gooneratne was "a soft target and a shocking choice" for assassination. He was not involved in the military end of the government. But he used to go about quite freely.
After the bombing, mobs attacked homes belonging to Tamils, a government official said.
"They would be so angry and upset they would want to retaliate at anyone," Mr. Perera said. "They cannot capture the Tiger. So they say these Tamil people are the nearest thing to a Tiger."
The government imposed a curfew on the bombed neighbourhood and two adjacent suburbs and barred journalists from the area.
The army's rapid deployment force surrounded a low-cost housing area in the neighbourhood and searched for suspects, a member of the force said.
An Information Department statement appealed to the public "to stay calm at a sensitive time such as this when emotions are running high." It added that steps had been taken "to protect all communities from any backlash."
A survivor said the assassin had hopped out of a taxi and greeted the minister at an intersection before detonating the bomb.
G.A. Yohan, another survivor who had an injured arm and was having trouble hearing, said: "I was walking beside the minister's entourage when the explosion took place. All I remember is falling on the ground."
The assassin's severed head and limbs were scattered around a traffic island.
Saturday, June 03, 2000
U.S. Sri Lankans protest fundraising in CanadaSteven Edwards
National Post
UNITED NATIONS - New York police set up barricades outside Canada's United Nations mission yesterday to allow American Sri Lankans to protest against alleged fundraising in Canada for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers, one of the world's most ruthless terrorist organizations.
Up to 150 demonstrators spent half a day waving placards calling for Canada to clamp down on expatriate Tamils suspected of sending money to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a rebel group that has waged a 17-year war to create a separate homeland centred on Sri Lanka's northern Jaffna peninsula.
"Stop fundraising now -- if not, Toronto will be the next separate state," said one banner in reference to the 155,000 Tamils who have sought refuge in and around the city, constituting the world's largest expatriate Tamil population.
"Are you aware Toronto is a little Jaffna?" said another.
In a letter addressed to Robert Fowler, Canada's Ambassador to the UN, the protesters said: "It is difficult for us to comprehend how the government of Canada hopes to convince the world that it is committed to international peace, considering the current laxity with which terrorist groups are treated there."
The letter also alluded to a recent dinner organized by a Toronto-based Tamil group alleged to be a front for the rebels, and attended by Paul Martin, the Minister of Finance, and Maria Minna, Minister for International Cooperation.
"Politicians who openly support these organizations need to be reproved," the letter said.
Mr. Fowler was at a meeting of the world body's Security Council in the morning; in the afternoon, he prepared to leave for an upstate "retreat" with the other 14 members of the Security Council and Kofi Annan, the UN's Secretary-General to talk about UN peacekeeping.
The Security Council retreat -- the second one in as many years -- comes at a crucial time for the UN, which has struggled in Sierra Leone because of too few troops, and must now gear up for the deployment of a 5,500-strong force to the Congo, and double its contingent in Lebanon.
"We're right in the middle of important missions," said John Ruggie, Mr. Annan's special advisor.
The retreat -- at the Rockefeller estate in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., will give the council a chance to discuss details of peacekeeping policy that fail to get addressed in daily deliberations, Mr. Ruggie added.
Friday, June 02, 2000
Canadian funds back terrorism: CSIS chiefStewart Bell, with a file from Andrew MacIntosh
National Post
Fred Chartrand, The Canadian PressWard Elcock, director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), said his agency is concentrating on terrorist fundraising. |
Ward Elcock, the director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said terrorist organizations such as the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) are exploiting Canada's wealth to finance bloodshed around the world. "If you tolerate these activities, you can run into problems," he said.
The intelligence director is concerned that terrorist groups prey on immigrant communities and resort to organized crime to get money, and he fears the failure to curb them may anger foreign governments and prompt them to take matters into their own hands.
"The reality is that, for governments in various places in the world, if they think that you're allowing terrorist activities to go on, they will do what they believe is necessary to deal with it, and we have no interest in that happening here.
"People think that the LTTE is or isn't a terrorist organization because they happen to like the goals or believe more in the goals, for any number of reasons.
"They can get themselves convinced that we should tolerate those activities and it's hard to explain to people that we don't make that distinction ... If you're engaging in advancing your political aims by violence, it doesn't matter what your cause is, it's the actions that are unacceptable," he said in a recent wide-ranging interview with the National Post.
In the House of Commons yesterday, the Liberals faced yet more questions about why two cabinet ministers, Paul Martin and Maria Minna, attended a $60-a-plate dinner last month for an organization that has been branded a front for the Tamil Tigers.
Lawrence MacAulay, the Solicitor-General, who oversees CSIS, said there is a "difference between legitimate gatherings and active support of terrorism. This country supports legitimate gatherings and that is exactly what has taken place."
But Monte Solberg, a Canadian Alliance MP, said a report published by CSIS called the organizers of the dinner, the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils, "one of the more active fronts for the Sri Lankan group, the Tamil Tigers," which assassinated Rajiv Gandhi, the Indian prime minister.
"FACT is a fundraising organization for the Tamil Tigers, that's well-established," Mr. Solberg said.
"Yet even though our own security agency has made that very clear, the Finance Minister and other ministers go to these sorts of events and put money into that organization."
Herb Gray, the Deputy Prime Minister, said the CSIS report was published by the intelligence agency, but not endorsed by it.
Asked by Ted White, another Alliance MP, if Mr. Martin had been instructed not to attend any further FACT events, Mr. Gray responded that it was a "foolish question."
In addition to the CSIS report, reports by the U.S. State Department and a renowned expert at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel have also identified FACT as a front for the Tigers, and, based on CSIS intelligence, the Immigration Department is currently trying to deport the group's former co-ordinator, alleging he was sent to Toronto to raise money for weapons.
The National Post has documented how Tamil Tigers supporters are raising funds in Canada through migrant smuggling, passport fraud, organized crime, front organizations and rallies at Toronto-area public schools featuring men in camouflage uniforms carrying mock assault rifles. They are also planning civil war celebrations this month at three venues, including the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto.
Mr. Elcock said fundraising was "one of the things that we spend a fair amount of resources trying to identify, how they're doing it, a rough idea -- and it's only a rough idea in some cases -- of how much they actually succeed in collecting and where it's going and what it's being used for."
Terrorist fundraising "is continuing. It's long been a concern and will probably continue to be a concern for a long period of time," he said. "We're a well-off country and people come here and seek that money and contribute to causes at home for any number of reasons ... Fundraising is just simply part of what organizations that happen to be seeking to advance their objectives by violence are using."
He would not reveal the intelligence agency's estimates of how much money was being collected by various groups, but said the amounts were not important because terrorists can cause significant damage with only a few hundred dollars' worth of explosives or firearms.
Mr. Elcock warned that any groups that seek to advance their goals through violence -- no matter how just they consider their cause -- will find themselves targeted by CSIS agents.
Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Tiger tales
National Post
Why did Paul Martin, the Finance Minister, attend a dinner this month hosted by a Sri Lankan group that is documented as a front for terrorists? Mr. Martin -- with fellow cabinet minister Maria Minna and Liberal backbenchers Roy Cullen, Bryon Wilfert and Jim Karygiannis -- dined at a "gala" Toronto ball for the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils, FACT for short, an organization that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the U.S. State Department and Israel's Institute for Counter-Terrorism all say is a front for the Tamil Tigers. So again: Why did Mr. Martin attend FACT's meeting?
It's a legitimate question. But when Ted White, a Canadian Alliance MP, asked it in Parliament's question period yesterday, Mr. Martin avoided answering and implied that Mr. White was intolerant just for asking. "Anybody who attacks a group of Canadians, whether they are Tamils or anything else, who gather at a cultural event and basically try to link them with terrorists, that is not the the Canadian way," he huffed to reporters. Questioning a fellow MP's patriotism is a strange tactic.
Perhaps, when Mr. Martin agreed to attend the dinner, he was unaware of FACT's terrorist links. That would have been a fair excuse, but Mr. Martin did not use it and instead sprang to FACT's defence. It is an odd thing to do, given the mounting evidence of alarming activity here in Canada by the Tamil Tigers' supporters. The National Post published an astonishing photograph yesterday in which Tiger supporters, dressed in camouflage uniforms and carrying mock rifles, were shown raising funds in a Toronto school building. Does Mr. Martin regard this as an acceptable cultural activity too?
It took the Air India bombing for Canada to wake up to the fact that Sikh militants had established an active base of operations in Canada; and just last December, Ahmed Ressam, a suspected Algerian terrorist, was caught smuggling a trunkload of explosives from Canada into the U.S. Will it take a similar incident for Mr. Martin to take the Tamil Tigers seriously? Last year alone they raised an estimated $22-million here. And according to Canada's Federal Court, people who raise funds for terrorists "bear the same guilt and responsibility as those who carry out terrorist acts." Politicians, particularly those who desire to lead their party, naturally seek to broaden the base of their electoral support. But it they should draw the line before they venture for voters into the CSIS's blacklist.
Wednesday, May 31, 2000
Martin fumes over terror chargesStewart Bell and Andrew McIntosh
National Post
Faced with continuing accusations that he showed poor judgment by speaking at an event hosted by a group branded a front for Tamil terrorism, Paul Martin, the Finance Minister, lashed out at critics in the House of Commons yesterday, calling them "anti-Canadian."
During Question Period, the opposition challenged Mr. Martin for attending a dinner for the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils. Ted White, a Canadian Alliance MP, said FACT has been identified in reports as "one of the most active and vital fundraising bodies for the Tamil Tigers."
Mr. White referred to a photograph in yesterday's National Post showing Tamil Tigers supporters dressed in camouflage and carrying replica assault rifles rallying at a Toronto-area public school, and asked if that was "the sort of things Canadians should celebrate?"
Mr. Martin insisted the dinner was a cultural celebration, and that "to condemn these people, to call them terrorists, is anti-Canadian. There is Irish blood coursing through my veins, but that doesn't mean I am member of the IRA."
Outside the House, Mr. Martin continued to chastize the Alliance, saying that "anybody who attacks a group of Canadians, whether they are Tamils or anything else, who gather at a cultural event and basically try to link them with terrorists, that is not the Canadian way. Canadians judge you for what you are.
"There were business people, workers of all kind [at the dinner] and they'd simply gathered for the Tamil New Year. And to try to to say that those people are, by the fact that there is a civil war going on Sri Lanka, to say that those people are terrorists, that's just not the Canadian way."
Mr. White said it was telling that Mr. Martin did not address the central issue -- that reports published by both the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and U.S. State Department identify FACT as a front for the Tamil Tigers terrorist group.
"I can only come to one conclusion from that evidence, and that is that he realizes and his staff realizes they made a mistake, but they don't know quite what to do about it, other than bluster. So that's what he's doing and, of course, trying to turn it into a racism issue," Mr. White said.
Meanwhile, a new report by a leading academic authority includes FACT on a list of "front, cover and sympathetic organizations" operating within Canada. The report estimates that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) raised more than $22-million in Canada last year to finance their campaign of political violence in Sri Lanka.
According to the study, donations totalling $12-million, as well as $10-million in other revenues, were collected in Canada to fuel the Sri Lankan civil war in 1999. The money was raised through a combination of fundraising drives and profits skimmed from businesses.
The money was transferred from at least 40 "feeder" bank accounts in Canada to 20 rebel accounts in Europe and Asia and used primarily for the purchase of weapons and technology with dual military and civilian uses, the March/April 2000 report says.
The study says it was not possible to estimate the value of Canadian organized-crime profits funnelled to the Tigers.
The figures appear in Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) Organisation and Operations in Canada, a study by Dr. Rohan Gunaratna, a research associate at the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence in Scotland and the Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel.
"In Canada, the LTTE imposes a minimum tax of $300 per annum per working adult Tamil," wrote Dr. Gunaratna, author of Sri Lanka's Ethnic Conflict and National Security. "Even those who are on social benefit are expected to pay $300 ... Those who have established businesses, from grocery shops to computer stores, will pay $3,000 per year."
The Tigers have been labelled a terrorist group for their ruthless tactics, which include political assassination and suicide bombings that target civilians.
Tuesday, May 30, 2000
Tamil terror allies use Toronto schools for fundraisersStewart Bell and Marina Jimenez
National Post
Wearing camouflage and carrying replica assault rifles, supporters of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rally at a public school in the Toronto area recently. Behind them is a map of "Tamil Eelam," the ethnic Tamil homeland the rebels want carved out of Sri Lanka. A Liberal member of Parliament spoke at this function, according to law enforcement sources. |
Donations are collected and Tamil Tigers paraphernalia and propaganda are sold at the monthly events, held at schools in the Toronto area. Law enforcement officials claim that the money goes to Tamil community organizations, which send it to the terrorist group to finance the civil war in Sri Lanka.
Liberal MPs have also turned up at the fundraising events -- in one case on a school stage where men in military uniforms carried replica assault rifles, according to law enforcement officials. The "soldiers" stood in front of a large map showing the areas under Tiger control.
"To carry replica guns in a school and sell rebel flags, propaganda and videos is not appropriate," said one law enforcement official.
Added another official, "It's not good to have a display of armed conflict in schools. To use a school for that type of cause is a little bit immoral."
The rallies are "magnets for violence" because they attract ethnic Tamil gangs, which the RCMP has said are heavily involved in financing the Tamil Tigers. "We know that a lot of them are gang members that are involved in these things," a law enforcement official said.
The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam has been declared a terrorist group because of its use of political assassination, child soldiers, suicide bombs directed at civilians and ethnic cleansing during its 17-year fight for a separate state in Sri Lanka. Thousands of Sri Lankan Tamils have sought refuge in Canada, which now has the world's largest expatriate Tamil population, about 155,000.
While many Canadian Tamils are opposed to the violent methods of the Tigers, some continue to support them from abroad, sending money to the rebels and using their freedom in Canada to rally support, spread propaganda, lobby politicians and intimidate critics.
Officials estimated there had been at least a dozen Tiger fundraising rallies in the Greater Toronto Area in the past year. Organizers approach local boards of education and ask to use the schools for "Tamil cultural events."
"What they do is they say it's a cultural event and the board of education goes along with it," said a law enforcement source.
The organizers often charge a $10 admission fee and sell videos and books, as well as T-shirts and flags emblazoned with the Tamil Tiger logo -- a roaring tiger in front of two crossed guns surrounded by a ring of bullets.
The events begin with a march in which uniformed men carrying mock rifles parade on stage. This is followed by a video showing war casualties, a speech by a local MP and then a keynote speaker, police say.
One law enforcement official described the sequence as: "Get them sympathetic, work them up and get them to make a donation."
Police have been monitoring the events and approached school boards with photos showing the use of military garb.
"We just take the photo to the board of education and say, 'What do you think of this?'" said a law enforcement official. But the schools lack the resources to monitor every event.
A spokeswoman for the Toronto District School Board said there had been reports of Tamil Tigers flags being flown at some after-hours functions. "We have had rumours to that effect but we never had anyone with sufficient proof that we could dismiss that group," said Stephanie Bolton.
She said there had been no complaints about the use of replica weapons but emphasized they are banned under the safe schools initiative and any group found using them would not be permitted to rent board property again.The school board lends its buildings to community groups for a nominal fee, provided they satisfy a list of conditions, including having off-duty police present.
Changes to board policy on the use of school property are to be voted on tomorrow and should address some of the concerns, she said. The board will also be doing more spot checks to make sure the schools are being used for appropriate purposes, she said.
This is the second time this month that Liberal politicians have been accused of associating with Tamil Tigers supporters. Federal cabinet ministers Paul Martin and Maria Minna attended a dinner in early May for the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT), which has been branded a terrorist front for the Tigers.
Yesterday in the House of Commons, Mr. Martin, the Minister of Finance, faced accusations from the Canadian Alliance that he was consorting with terrorist supporters but responded that the FACT dinner was a cultural celebration and, at $60 a plate, it was "hardly a major fundraising event."
In another sign that terrorist support is occurring freely in Canada, Tamil groups, including the World Tamil Movement, which has also been named a terrorist front, have been advertising a series of "victory celebrations" in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal to cheer on a wave of ethnic violence in northern Sri Lanka that has left hundreds of troops and civilians dead.
However, at least one of the events will not proceed.
Maureen Moloughney, executive director of the Bronson Centre in Ottawa, said despite Tamil-language advertisements saying there would be a celebration at the centre on June 4, no formal agreement was in place and the event would not go ahead.
The centre is operated by the Sisters of the Immaculata, and the event would not be compatible with the group's non-violent beliefs, she said.
The Ottawa event had been advertised as a "celebration" of Unceasing Waves, the name of a continuing series of Tamil Tiger attacks in northern Sri Lanka.
SLUNA COMMENT: This is what a SLUNA member found out after talking to Gail Nyberg, Chair of the Toronto Distric School Board, over the phone-According to her,none of the schools she is affiliated with had anything like the National Post had printed,staged anywhere.
However she promised to look into this. She had apparently already got in touch with the local Police and is looking around for info regarding the venue. She wanted any one to call her if we could give her more info for her to proceed with her part in securing a safer environment in her schools. She seemed fully aware of the situation.
She said that until and unless we keep her and the other Principals and Boards of Educaiton informed as to the location and dates, she is powerless because no one has brought this particular event for her info.