TORONTO - A pair of Canadian non-profit organizations the RCMP says raised millions of dollars for Sri Lanka's Tamil Tiger rebels have been ordered to forfeit all their belongings to the federal government.
The Federal Court ruled the property of the World Tamil Movement of Ontario and the World Tamil Movement of Quebec was owned or controlled by a terrorist organization, and therefore had to be forfeited. The decision marks the official end of the WTM, which was formed in 1986 and became closely aligned with the fight for Tamil independence in Sri Lanka. It also marks the conclusion of a nine-year RCMP investigation that did not result in criminal charges.
"We still view this as a very positive ending in the sense that we did disrupt activities of terrorist financing in Canada, so that's important to us," RCMP Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said on Friday.
Although the WTM has ceased to function, Assistant Comm. Michaud, head of National Security Criminal Investigations, said the Tamil Tigers are still a "group of interest" for RCMP counter-terrorism investigators.
The court orders make Ottawa the new owner of the WTM headquarters building in Montreal, several bank accounts, cash, and thousands of propaganda items, many of them bearing the emblem of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) rebel group.
The list of items seized by police includes boxes of LTTE flags, 20 t-shirts with the LTTE logo, 67 posters of LTTE theoretician Anton Balasingham, 5 garbage bags with the LTTE logo and calendars, watches and posters featuring images of rebel leader Velupillai Prabhakaran.
A forensic audit found that the WTM was running a pre-authorized payment program that withdrew monthly sums from the bank accounts of Canadians. The WTM took in up to $763,000 a year using the scheme. Most of the donors took part voluntarily, but police also interviewed witnesses who said they were coerced or pressured into participating.
The WTM also made money through bake sales, car washes, newspaper sales, merchandise sales and festivals. The RCMP traced more than $3-million that was forwarded from WTM bank accounts to overseas accounts. Most of the money went to a Malaysian account the RCMP said was linked to the rebels.