Jean Chrétien's Liberal government is doing little to prevent groups linked to foreign terrorists from raising funds in Canada. Our country's lax policy facilitates bloodshed abroad and subjects Canadian immigrants to the strong-arm tactics of local fundraisers. This is especially apparent among Tamil-Canadians, where death threats and extortion are routine. For two decades, a group called the Tamil Tigers has been committing acts of terrorism in Sri Lanka and waging a bloody on and off civil war. The conflict has claimed more than 62,000 victims -- about 40,000 of them civilians. To finance this bloodshed, the Tigers rely on the contributions of expatriate Tamils. The Sri Lankan government estimates the Tigers raise about $120-million a year, up to a quarter of that in Canada.

Other nations have taken measures to ensure their citizens do not finance terrorism. Fundraising for the Tigers, and other terrorist organizations, is illegal in the United States. Britain passed terrorism legislation last year that made it illegal to plan or finance a terrorist attack even if it is carried out abroad. According to the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, there are eight Canadian non-profit organizations acting as Tiger fronts. Yet, last May, opposition MPs were smeared as racists when they asked why Minister of Finance Paul Martin and Minister of International Development, Maria Minna, attended a Toronto event sponsored by the Federation of Associations of Canadian Tamils (FACT), an organization CSIS and the U.S. State Department say is a front for the Tigers. Liberals accused opposition MPs of "pure racism," of being an "anti-Canadian" mob and of attempting to "wrongly stereotype and stigmatize hundreds of thousands of people because of their Tamil origin."

If the Liberal government is willing to shrug its shoulders at death in Sri Lanka, perhaps it will be motivated to act by recent accounts of threatened violence in Canada. As the National Post recently reported, many Canadian Tamils who refuse to support the Tigers' violence are, themselves, threatened with violence. Adiyar Vipulananda is one Tamil-Canadian who opposed Tiger influence at a Toronto temple. For speaking out, he was threatened with death. According to Mr. Vipulananda, family members of threatened men pleaded with them not to "go to the police [because] if [they] go to the police, they will send the gangs and they will harm us." Mr. Vipulananda believes "the government [does] not take proper action against this." We share his belief.

Canada promises sanctuary to refugees fleeing terrorism. But, in the case of Tamils, our government turns a blind eye to those preying upon them once they arrive, and excoriate political opponents who suggest they have a duty not to. The Liberals' defiance and taunts of racism are neither moral nor smart politics. Rather, they are a show of cowardice and culpable cynicism. Terrorism should not be financed with Canadian money and immigrants should not be subjected to extortion. What part of that do the Liberals not understand?