Ottawa won't budge on banning Tamil Tigers

DAWN WALTON

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

April 15, 2009 at 4:22 AM EDT

CALGARY — Canada has done its best to end the long-running conflict in Sri Lanka, but will not bow to pressure to remove the Tamil Tigers from the list of banned terrorist groups, a federal cabinet minister said yesterday.

For more than a week, Tamil supporters have been gathering around Parliament Hill to protest the war in the South Asian country and ask Ottawa to intervene. On Friday, more than 1,000 people lined Wellington Street in front of the Parliament buildings waving Tamil flags. Five people are on a hunger strike.

"We have done everything that these protesters are asking Canada to do - namely call for a ceasefire - except we will not respond to a demand of anyone to legalize a banned, illegal terrorist organization," Immigration Minister Jason Kenney told reporters in Calgary.

In 2006, Canada placed the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam on a list of banned terrorist organizations under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, which prohibits financing such groups.

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