Terrorist list is policy with a dash of politics: Analysts

Canada’s terrorist list is grounded in an “intensive” bureaucratic process, but one that is political nonetheless, security analysts say. 

Canada’s listing of the International Relief Fund for the Afflicted and Needy, and rejection of Sri Lanka’s listing of two Canadian Tamil organizations as terrorist groups in the past few weeks, created a stir of controversy in Canada and a mini diplomatic spat. 

Decisions on whether to list an organization in Canada are made by Cabinet, on recommendation of the public safety minister. The organizations eligible to be listed are assembled by Public Safety Canada and based on information provided by a Canadian spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and in some cases Canada’s allies, said Wesley Wark, a security and terrorism researcher at the University of Ottawa, in a phone interview.

“A minister can’t, on his own, invent a case,” he said. “There is a process that has to go through.”

However, Mr. Wark and other security and terrorism analysts said international and domestic politics could play a role in whether Canada’s cabinet chooses to list an organization, remove it from the list or recognize another country’s list.  

Listings spark war of words

The federal government added IRFAN to its terrorist list April 29; the same day, the RCMP accused it of financing Hamas, and a day earlier it raided the organization’s offices in Mississauga and Montreal.  

The listing happened days before IRFAN was to argue to the Federal Court for the restoration of its charitable status, Yavar Hameed, an Ottawa lawyer speaking for the group, told the CBC.  Mr. Hameed has appealed the listing, also through the Federal Court, the National Post reported. 

Mr. Hameed and IRFAN officials could not be reached for comment by deadline Tuesday.

Meanwhile, the Canadian government responded to Sri Lanka’s release of a list of 16 organizations and more than 400 individuals it labeled terrorists at the beginning of last month. Tamil diaspora organizations in Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada were among them.

The Canadian government rejected the listing of the Canadian Tamil Congress and National Council of Canadian Tamils in an April 30 press release. 

“Diaspora communities play an important role in Sri Lanka’s post-conflict reconciliation process. This action by the Sri Lankan government could further hinder progress on reconciliation,” the Department of Foreign Affairs, Trade and Development press release said.  

“While we may share concerns about some of those listed, we remind the government of Sri Lanka that it must ensure any measure taken to combat terrorism complies with its obligations under international law, in particular international human rights law,” the release said.

The government is “concerned about the motives” of the Sri Lankan government in assembling its list, Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jean-Bruno Villeneuve said in an emailed statement.

Lional Premasiri, Sri Lanka’s acting high commissioner in Canada, said in a phone interview his government has “very clear and substantial information” that the listed organizations have funded “terrorist activities” connected to a movement to revitalize the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which is itself listed as a terrorist organization in Canada and elsewhere. 

However, Sri Lanka has not discussed the matter with the Canadian government, he said. 

Sri Lanka did not contact Canada to obtain information on the Canadian Tamil Congress or National Council of Canadian Tamils before listing them, he said. Canada also did not contact the Sri Lankan embassy for evidence that those organizations funded terrorism before rejecting the listing, he added.  

Mr. Wark and other international security and law analysts said co-operation between allies is commonplace when considering whether to list an organization. However, the governments of Canada and Sri Lanka currently have a frosty relationship. 

‘This is mainly to protect our country’

Canada cut its funding last month for the Commonwealth Secretariat in part due to alleged human rights abuses by the Sri Lankan government, which currently chairs the secretariat, drawing an accusation from the Sri Lankan government that it was playing politics, the Associated Press reported.  

Canada also supported a March UN Human Rights Council inquiry into alleged war crimes during the Sri Lankan civil war. 

Sri Lanka’s own listing system is highly political, and tied to international relations, said Amarnath Amarasingam, who researches diaspora politics and terrorism at Dalhousie University’s Resilience Research Centre, in a phone interview. 

“I don’t think they see these [listed] organizations as dangerous,” he said.

The Sri Lankan government “lumped together” pro-Tamil organizations around the world while constructing its list, argued David Poopalapillai, the Canadian Tamil Congress’s national spokesperson, in a phone interview. 

Mr. Premasiri rejected that assertion, and said the listing process was not influenced by politics. 

“This is mainly to protect our country, because we have suffered enough,” he said. 

Canada’s list currently includes the LTTE and World Tamil Movement. Mr. Amarasingam said the prior Liberal government faced criticism for not listing the LTTE while it was in power.

Veronica Kitchen, associate professor of political science at the University of Waterloo’s Balsillie School of International Affairs, said in a phone interview that Canada’s listing process is no more or less political than any other government process.

”Anything related to politics and bureaucracy is inevitably political. That doesn’t mean it’s wrong necessarily,” she said.

“Part of the reason it gets so complicated, and why we get disagreements between say, a Canadian diaspora group and Sri Lanka, or Iran and Canada, or IRFAN Canada and Canada, is that these groups are doing more than one thing. It’s hard to know where any particular dollar is going,” she said.  

The federal government caused a stir in late 2012 when it dropped from its list the Mujahedin-e-Khalq, a leftist Iranian group with the goal of undermining the Iranian regime and a violent past. 

The delisting came shortly after Canada suspended diplomatic relations with Iran. The European Union had delisted the MEK in 2009 following a prolonged legal battle with the organization over the listing, and the United States had delisted the group in 2012 following a lobbying campaign.

“It’s hard to interpret delisting Iranian opposition groups, at the time Canada did it, as anything other than a diplomatic signal, but that again doesn’t also mean that they shouldn’t have been delisted,” said Ms. Kitchen.

peter@embassynews.ca