Montreal Newspaper calls Tamil Organization shut down ‘hasty’
The Montreal Gazette in an editorial on June 19th, says The Mounties may have enough documentary evidence – but listing the Tamil Canadian Volunteer Organization, World Tamil Movement (WTM) as a terrorist organization, is a decision taken in haste. The newspaper adds that a recent ‘major raid on the movement’s headquarters last spring has resulted in no charges so far.’
Full Text of the Editorial as follows:
Tamil listing is a little hasty
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day appears, to us at least, to have been just a little too hasty in adding the World Tamil Movement to Canada’s official list of banned terrorist organizations, along with Hamas and Al-Qa’ida.
It’s quite possible that the WTM is, as Day said this week, a leading front for the Tamil Tiger insurgents back home in Sri Lanka. But so far the evidence against the group is pretty thin. No WTM member has ever been prosecuted for a crime, let alone convicted. And a major raid on the movement’s headquarters last spring has resulted in no charges so far.
The Mounties have certainly presented enough documentary evidence to make a reasonable person suspect that the WTM might well be doing more than just lobbying governments and raising money for Sri Lankan charities. And until those suspicions are laid to rest, the government should certainly keep a close eye on the group’s activities.
But until they’re confirmed, government suspicions alone should never be enough to shut down a voluntary organization of Canadians. [www.Montreal Gazette]
