Saturday, June 17, 2000

National Post

The Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT) has threatened to sue the National Post for defamation. In news stories and editorials, this newspaper has reported that FACT is identified by intelligence services, including Canada's, as a front organization for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), probably the most ruthless and murderous terrorists in the world. Over 17 years, desiring to achieve independence for the island's Tamil minority, the Tigers have waged a campaign against the democratically elected Sri Lankan government. So far, this war of terror has claimed 60,000 lives. Early this month, a suicide bomber murdered 22 innocent civilians and a government minister at a war memorial day in Colombo.

This newspaper stands by its stories. We have based these upon reports and court evidence from several intelligence and police agencies. For instance, the authoritative U.S. State Department's annual Report on Global Terrorism has, beginning in 1994 and in subsequent years, unreservedly singled out FACT as a Tiger front organization. A report published by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service this year reached the same conclusion, and CSIS reaffirmed this view in a court deportation hearing.

FACT activists dispute these findings. At a news conference on Thursday, a spokesman said: "FACT is an umbrella organization that represents the interests of the entire Tamil community ... questioning FACT's legitimacy to operate in Canada amounts to a denial of Tamil-Canadians' right to associate, assemble and express themselves." Another FACT representative added that: "We will not be denigrated," and the National Post's coverage of FACT's activities was declared to be "a calculated attack on Tamil-Canadians."

It is suggested, in short, that this newspaper is engaged in a racist effort to incite antagonism toward Canada's Tamil community. And because we are "questioning FACT's legitimacy," it is alleged that the National Post is trampling upon every Tamil-Canadian's right to free association, free assembly and free expression. These are reductionist and hysterical charges that could be lightly set aside and ignored if their potential effect were not so harmful, and their ultimate objective so cynical. As Martin Newland, the National Post's deputy editor, stated: "We are not in the business of arbitrarily sectioning off part of the Canadian populace and painting them all as terrorists. We recognize that the Canadian Tamil community as a whole represents a rich and important part of the tapestry of ethnic communities that make up Canadian society."

The overwhelming majority of Tamil-Canadians possess exactly the same attributes as Portuguese-Canadians, Jewish-Canadians, Lebanese-Canadians, Ukrainian-Canadians and Chinese-Canadians -- to name just a few randomly selected ethnic groups. Like most people, they work hard, save, go on holiday when they can, pay their taxes and worry about health, education and crime. By suggesting racism, FACT has conjured a spectre that these days too frequently silences all further inquiry or doubt. The implication is that any person who asks questions is an anti-immigrant, closed-minded bigot. But there is no racism -- inherent, implied or "calculated" -- in the National Post's articles and editorials about the Tamil community.

By reporting the contents of official documents and proceedings, the National Post is not casting aspersions on the entirety of an ethnic minority population. If it did, then we would have to believe that every Italian-American is a member of the Mafia, and that every Muslim in Canada covertly works on behalf of radical Islamic terrorist groups. Indeed, we believe that the decent peaceable majority of Tamil-Canadians welcome our reports into what the federal government officially concludes are malign activities by a few who help fund terrorism.

FACT is certainly not representative. Recent intelligence estimates place Canadian-Tamil support of LTTE at a maximum of a 5th of the overall Tamil population in Canada. Another 15% are virulently anti-LTTE, which is not surprising because Tigers in Sri Lanka frequently kill and terrorize those Tamils who either do not "donate" money or dare to criticize them. The rest -- about two-thirds of Tamil-Canadians -- are a "floating population" who wish only for peace and to be left alone. It is hubristic of FACT to claim, therefore, that it represents anyone apart from its own supporters.

Indeed, if FACT is really a legitimate representative of the Tamil community, it must explain why it shelters the World Tamil Movement beneath its umbrella. The WTM is an organization identified by the Toronto Metropolitan Police's Tamil Task Force as being connected to LTTE through Manickavasagam Suresh, the former co-ordinator of FACT and "LTTE in-charge," who is currently in deportation proceedings. CSIS's assessment, accepted by the court in Mr. Suresh's deportation case, was that "the LTTE operates in Canada, under the auspices of a front organization, the WTM, for the purpose of fundraising, propaganda and procurement of material." Thus, if Canada's intelligence service is correct in the evidence it has given in court that the Tigers operate in this country under the cover of the WTM, and if we accept FACT's own statement that the WTM is one of its eight "important constituent members," then there is a cast iron link between it and terrorism in Sri Lanka.

According to the Task Force's reports, the VVT gang in Toronto serves as "enforcers" for "the political representatives of the LTTE in Canada." The VVT -- manned by former members of Tamil paramilitary groups in Sri Lanka -- is responsible for assaulting Tamil critics of LTTE, extorting money, ruining businesses run by perceived opponents and imposing LTTE "law" upon the Tamil community.

The National Post has received a flood of letters from Canadian Tamils who give thanks for exposing these links and illicit activities. According to one: "WTM henchmen were tapping at every door to collect money (this is an ongoing nuisance) and forced people to offer money in large amounts. People in Toronto have to give without demur for fear of reprisal on the streets of Toronto or their relatives in the villages of Jaffna [in northern Sri Lanka]." The correspondent ends poignantly: "There are so many Tamils like me who want to live a peaceful, honest, violence-free life in our adopted country. But things are going from bad to worse. So, please be discreet [with my name and address, for fear of reprisals]. Keep your spirit and expose what you believe is wrong. Thank you."

The fact is that our government is gravely concerned by what its investigations have discovered about FACT. The National Post will continue to report both its own and official findings. The lives and livelihoods of the tens of thousands of Tamil-Canadians are blighted by the LTTE's methods and do not support its aims. If terrorist financiers are operating within the Tamil-Canadian minority, letting their activities and the terror they support go unreported, merely to avoid accusations of "racism," would help to erode, undermine and corrupt the legitimate law enforcement, judicial, financial and political structures of Canada itself.