OTTAWA - A former director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says the Liberal government is reluctant to take strong measures against groups that raise funds for international terrorism because ethnic communities are among the party's biggest supporters.

Reid Morden, who headed the spy agency from 1987 to 1991 and is currently chairman of KPMG Corporate Intelligence Inc., yesterday urged the federal government to set aside those partisan concerns and outlaw groups engaged in fundraising and other activities for terrorist purposes.

"Overwhelmingly the party of choice for most new Canadians has been traditionally the Liberal party, so I'm sure there is a very large political calculation in the nervousness with which the government is clearly addressing this," Mr. Morden said in an interview.

"I guess I feel rather critical of that. I think there is a moment for political leadership that ought to transcend a rather narrowing partisan view."

He says government plans to revoke the charitable tax status of groups raising money for international terrorism are inadequate and will do little to erase Canada's reputation as a haven for terrorists.

"We should be doing more ... I don't think they have taken a very robust attitude," he said.

"I really think we should go further than simply saying, 'Well, we're taking away your charitable status.' "

Mr. Morden offered a number of examples of groups that ought to be banned, including the Sikh groups Babbar Khalsa and the Khalistan Liberation Organization, the Basque separatist group ETA, the Kurdistan Workers Party and Irish terrorist groups on both sides of the religious divide.

Other suspect groups could be put on a "suspicion watch" or be notified their books will be audited to ensure money raised for charitable purposes does not end up in the hands of foreign terrorist organizations, he said.

Mr. Morden also criticized Paul Martin, Minister of Finance, and Maria Minna, Minister for International Co-operation, for attending a dinner in Toronto last year for a Tamil group that has been accused by both CSIS and the U.S. State Department of raising money for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.

The Tigers have engaged in terror attacks in Sri Lanka in a bid to create a separate Tamil state.

"I really am disappointed when government ministers attend their fundraising events because it gives everybody the sort of good housekeeping stamp of approval and it makes it look like it is OK," he said. "It would have shown a lot more leadership to say, 'No, not until ... we can be assured that your money is going to go to the widows and children of that civil war.' "

Mr. Morden stressed there is a degree of sophistication needed to assess whether a group is involved in terrorism. Some groups, such as the World Sikh Federation, legitimately raise money for good causes in their homeland, he said.

"Surely we can make a judgment about the people who are really reflecting the cultural diversity that we have in this country and those who are abusing the hospitality of the country to foster and inflame the problems they left behind in their motherland," Mr. Morden said.

He said Ottawa should follow the lead of Britain and the United States in banning organizations involved in terrorism. Britain banned 21 groups last week under a new law that targets organizations that support terrorism.

Briefing notes prepared by Foreign Affairs staff argued recently that Canada should focus on acts of terrorism rather than specific groups so as to avoid alienating ethnic communities with broad-brush accusations or violating the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

"That is sophistry of the worst kind because if you don't have the groups, you frankly don't have the acts of terrorism, so if you don't go to the root, I'm not sure you are going to find very much," Mr. Morden said. "I think the line has been skewed very much in favour of private liberties and people forget the good of the common weal."

Mr. Morden said he believes most new Canadians would approve if Ottawa were to outlaw terrorist groups from their homelands because those groups often force immigrants to contribute to their causes.

The federal government is expected within weeks to present a bill to deregister charities that support international terrorists. The groups would not be banned but donors would no longer be eligible for tax deductions.

Mr. Morden was a long-time public servant who, in addition to his work at CSIS, served as deputy minister of the Department of Foreign Affairs and president of Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd.