CLASSIFIED | POLITICS | TERRORISM | OPINION | VIEWS

WERE CANADIAN ELECTORAL REGISTERS USED TO COLLECT FUNDS FOR THE TAMIL TIGERS ASKS GLOBE AND MAIL NEWSPAPER

By Walter Jayawardhana

Canada’s Globe and Mail newspaper said in its latest issue that how Canada’s Elections Deparment voters lists that are meant only for federal candidates and ministers for elections ended up with LTTE front organization the World Tamil Movement is a mystery.

When the Canadian Mounted Police raided the Tamil offices two years ago they found “the most disturbing” evidence and the Mounted Police is trying to prove the Canadian non profit organization was fund raising for a terrorist group who have been known to use child soldiers and suicide bombers in their bid for a separate state in Sri Lanka, the newspaper said.

The newspaper said the LTTE front organization would have been using the electoral lists as tools for fundraising. Following is the full report:

“Precisely how Elections Canada voters lists ended up in the offices of an alleged terrorist front group is a lingering mystery that Canadian officials say they will likely never solve. But privacy officials now say they are auditing federal practises with an eye to plugging such leaks.

“An RCMP affidavit revealed this week in Federal Court states that federal voters lists were among the "most disturbing" items seized in raids on the World Tamil Movement's Toronto offices in 2006. Police said the lists were the type that are sent to federal candidates and ministers for elections, and yet they turned up in the office of the non-profit group, the surnames of ethnic Tamils highlighted in yellow.

“Such lists were once publicly posted, but they are now distributed only to Elections Canada officials and candidates' campaigns. They are released expressly to help advance Canadian democracy, and misusing them is an offence under the Elections Act that can lead to a $1,000 fine or three months in jail.

The RCMP investigation seeks to prove the non-profit was a fundraising arm for foreign rebels who have been known to use child soldiers and suicide bombers in their bid for a separate state in Sri Lanka.

“The Conservative government blacklisted the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist entity shortly after it took power in 2006. The designation allowed the Mounties to raid the World Tamil Movement just days later. Properties have since been seized in Montreal and Toronto, and one alleged member of the group was recently charged in Vancouver.

The RCMP affidavits detailing the fruits of the raids appear to have turned up extremely rich details of an organized fundraising drive focused on one of Canada's biggest refugee populations. According to filings in Toronto, the Mounties believe the voters lists were just one prong in a multifaceted campaign by Tigers supporters to keep tabs on the Tamil diaspora, so as to keep money flowing back to Sri Lanka.

The RCMP affidavit further states that the Mounties, working with an Elections Canada investigator, were unable to determine who had handled the lists - meaning that no charges will be laid. A Privacy Commissioner of Canada probe into the leak has stalled, but a spokeswoman said that the agency is now conducting an overall audit of Elections Canada's "personal-information-management" practises.

"I can't talk of the scope of the audit," said Anne-Marie Hayden. But she added that "certainly the folks in our audit and review department are aware of the alleged Tamil Tiger situation."
It's not just the Mounties who suggest that Tamil Tiger front groups have an uncanny ability to keep tabs on potential supporters. In 2006, Human Rights Watch released a report on the Tigers' global financing machine, quoting an anonymous Toronto woman saying that whenever she moved, she got visitors. "Each time, they came to visit within a month or two," she said. "Once it was within two weeks."

“The RCMP affidavit specifically alleges the seized lists originated in two individual polling stations in the Scarborough-Guildwood riding, a largely Tamil neighbourhood. The lists all had headings indicating either Military Trail Public School or Highcastle Public School, according to the affidavit. Each list would have likely not contained more than about 500 names.

Bob Loptson, the long-time campaign manager for Scarborough-Guildwood's Liberal MP, John McKay, said poll-by-poll lists are not really used much any more except for election day. That's when about a dozen or perhaps 20 people, mostly temporary Elections Canada employees, would have access to a list at each poll.

"All kinds of people get their hands on where we're canvassing today, but it's not a whole poll," he said, noting they are divided by street or block. "It could be parts of five polls."
He said the riding-wide list is kept tightly held: "I'm very confident nobody got a list out of our office."

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