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by Ranga Jayasuriya

A Conservative government, likely to emerge from tomorrow's federal election in Canada would add the Tigers to Canada's list of banned foreign terrorists groups, Conservative Party deputy leader Peter MacKay has told the National Post, a leading Canadian newspaper.

"The short answer is yes," he said when asked by the National Post journalist and the author of "the Snow Tigers", Stewart Bell whether the Tamil Tigers would be listed if the government changed on Monday.

"We would list them."

The latest opinion polls indicate that Conservatives are having a convincing lead over the Liberals. The SES Research poll on January 19 put Conservatives at 35.5 per cent against 29 per cent of Liberals. Another poll, Ekos put Conservatives at 37.4 per cent against 27.3 percent of Liberals.

The Conservative Party deputy leader was also quoted as saying that a Conservative government would act to deport accused "terrorists" such as alleged former Tamil Tiger fundraiser Manickavasagam Suresh.

Suresh was arrested for deportation 10 years ago, but still lives near Toronto.The National Post quoted Mackay as saying, "we draw a very distinct line between the Tamil community, who are extremely peace-loving, productive members of society, and this very small terrorist group that has been listed, as I understand it, by many of our traditional allies, including the U.S. and the U.K.

The Mackenzie Institute, an independent non-profit organisation concerned on political instability and organised violence in a detailed report on foreign terrorist groups in Canada, identified World Tamil Movement (WTM) and Federation of Association of Canadian Tamils (FACT) as LTTE fronts engaging in fundraising in Canada.

The US State Department Report, Pattern of Global Terrorism has also named WTM and FACT as LTTE fronts, which also run a dozen subordinate groups campaigning for the Tigers. The Mackenzie Institute report also identified the Academy of Tamil Arts and Technology, Canadian Alert on Sri Lanka, Canadian Foundation for Tamil Refugee rehabilitation and Canadian Tamil Congress as having links with the LTTE.

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