10,000 terrorists in Canada: report
Think-tank says most live peacefully, but could be activated at any time
David Pugliese
The Ottawa Citizen
Wednesday, July 09, 2003
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Police intelligence officers believe as many as 10,000 former Tamil guerrillas now live in Canada, just one example of how the country has become a haven for terrorists and others involved in wars around the globe, according to a new study by a Toronto-based think-tank.
Some of the Tamil guerrillas have joined street gangs in Toronto, says the report by the Mackenzie Institute, an organization that monitors political violence and terrorism.
In other cases, al-Qaeda members living in Montreal in the 1990s were already veterans of a guerrilla war in Algeria. Other ex-guerrillas, such as those from a Kurdish rebel group, were among rioters who hurled a Molotov cocktail at an RCMP sergeant in Ottawa during a February 1999 demonstration outside the Turkish Embassy, the institute notes.
"Some former combatants present a danger to Canadians," according to the study written by the institute's president, John Thompson, and researcher Joe Turlej. Mr. Turlej has since left the institute and now works as an intelligence analyst with a civilian police force.
In an interview, Mr. Thompson said many of the ex-guerrillas are living a peaceful existence for now, but could be reactivated by their former organizations.
He blamed Canada's failing immigration policies, as well as a lack of enforcement of existing laws, for having allowed the country to become home to terrorists and their front groups. Besides being a refuge for former guerrillas, the study notes that 15 out of 80 identified international terrorist groups have significant supporters or members in Canada.
Although the threat of substantial terrorist violence in Canada seems low, it is only a matter of time before the country is attacked, the report warns.
"While the United States, Israel, Britain, France, Singapore, and Australia have attracted more of the hostile attention of these groups than we have, a major action against Canada is inevitable at some time," according to the study.
Mr. Thompson said Canada has been slow to outlaw a number of active terrorist groups. It was only several weeks ago that the federal government added Babbar Khalsa to its list of terrorist organizations. The group is believed to be behind the 1985 Air India bombing, the worst mass murder in Canadian history.
There are now 31 groups outlawed under the government's Anti-Terrorism Act, which came into force three months after the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
Mr. Thompson noted that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is still not on Canada's list of terrorist groups, despite being banned in England and being described by the U.S. as a terrorist organization. The group is also included on the UN Security Council's list of terrorist individuals and entities.
Part of the problem, according to Mr. Thompson, is that front groups for such organizations have courted politicians on the federal and provincial scene, bringing them much- needed votes from ethnic communities. As a result, politicians are reluctant to act.
Mr. Thompson said at the same time, these front groups accuse anyone who suggests there is terrorist infiltration of ethnic groups of being racist or holding "un-Canadian" views.
"We have allowed the agents of the violence experienced in other nations to come here, mercilessly dominate their fellows from their home societies, and preach an Orwellian message that we must tolerate their intolerance, and that it is racist and condescending to question their motives and actions," the report states. "Worse still, some of our political leaders have accepted this message."
Three years ago, then-finance minister Paul Martin and his cabinet colleague Maria Minna, then the minister of international co-operation, were criticized for attending a fund-raising dinner held by an alleged Tamil Tigers front group. Municipal and provincial politicians were also among the attendees at the Toronto dinner.
When opposition MPs raised the issue in the Commons, they were denounced by Liberals as racists.
Mr. Thompson said it is not enough for government just to pass anti-terrorism laws; those measures have to be used.
Instead of applying the new laws to all terrorist groups in Canada, the federal government's use of a "list" of selected groups to be banned is embarrassing, Mr. Thompson said. "As partners in the 'War on Terrorism' we seem slow, timid and unsure of ourselves," the report adds.
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