Sri Lankans living in Canada rallied last week to express their support for fresh initiatives currently being debated by Canadian lawmakers to crackdown on global terrorist organizations in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks in the United States.

About 125 Sri Lankan-Canadians gathered on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on September 28th for a peaceful demonstration to urge the House of Commons to speedily adopt tough new legislation to eradicate terrorism and to put an end to all forms of support global terrorist organizations receive from their front groups in Canada.

Addressing the demonstrators in the shadow of the Parliaments gigantic Peace Tower, senior federal parliamentarian and opposition foreign affairs critic Gurmant Grewal thanked the Sri Lankan community of Canada for uniting to fight against terrorism.

I know most of the people from Sri Lanka are very good people but a tiny, small fraction may belong to a terrorist organization known as Tamil Tigers, or its front organizations. And you good people have come here to protest against them and other terrorist organizations, said the Canadian Alliance MP from British Columbia.

Mr. Grewal said that Canada had an obligation to join the United States to bring about tough anti-terrorism legislation and said that the September 11th terrorist attacks have spurred Canadian lawmakers into action. The terrorist attacks in the USA have focused a lot of attention on terrorism in Canada - its causes, sources, fundraising, and on measures to combat terrorism, he said. Mr. Grewal was joined under Peace Tower by Canadian Alliance MP Rahim Jaffer from Edmonton.

In fact the Canadian government, headed by Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien, has committed itself to speedily enact legislation to strike at the heart of terrorist support cells that exist on Canadian soil by targeting terrorist fundraising capabilities. Among the new legal measures that the government is contemplating is the ratification of the U.N. Convention for the Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, which Canada signed in February 2000.

The 1999 convention, which Canada helped draft, obliges countries to make it an offence to participate in, organized, direct or contribute to terrorist activities. It also, obliges countries to identify, detect and seize any funds used or allocated for the purpose of committing the offences.

Demonstrators said they welcomed the response of the Canadian Government to the threat of terrorism. The Justice Minister and the Solicitor General have assured Parliament that the administration will act and act fast, said Gamini Senarath, one of the conveners of the demonstration. While appreciating this commitment, we would like to urge Canada to ratify the U.N. Convention as early as possible, Senarath said.

He added : Every single day that goes by without the ratification of this Convention, is a day that adds more money to the war chests of global terrorist organizations.

In fact, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) reported in 1998 that close upon 50 well-known terrorist organizations, with stakes in various international conflicts, were operational in Canada.

In his speech on the opening day of the Canadian House of Commons since the September 11th attacks, Opposition Leader Stockwell Day said : We know that terrorist groups such as Babbar Khalsa, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, the Kurdistan Workers Party and the Irish Republican Army have all raised large amounts of money in Canada and continue to do so.

Addressing the Sri Lankan demonstrators, Mr. Grewal pointed out that there were some 8,000 guerrilla-trained Tamil Tigers currently living in Canada. These gangs are responsible for assisting the LTTE in carrying out human and arms trafficking, passport, credit card and bank fraud, extorting money from expatriate communities, as well as the importation and sale of heroin and the laundering of its proceeds. CSIS estimates that between $1-2 million per year are channelled to the LTTE in Sri Lanka by its front organizations operating in Canada. But during a special need, LTTE can mobilize its front organizations to raise up to $10 million. Sometimes, even money raised under the humanitarian banner is channelled instead to fund the LTTEs war and to commit terrorist activities in Sri Lanka, Mr. Grewal said.

Demonstrators urged Canada to name specific organisations that practice terrorism around the world and to freeze the assets held in Canada by such groups and their front organizations.

Canada must identify organisations which participate in terrorist activity while claiming to be fighting for liberation. Then they must enact legislation to crackdown on individuals and organisations which raise funds in Canada for such terrorist organisations. This is our message to our leaders, said demonstrator Sarath Amarakoon.