Posted on 03/03/2009 6:52:22 PM PST by Clive
The government took the first steps Tuesday toward taking over property in Ontario and Quebec that it says is controlled by a terrorist group involved in South Asia's longest-running civil war.
Federal prosecutors in Toronto and Montreal filed applications in the Federal Court of Canada saying they were seeking the forfeiture of the property of the World Tamil Movement, an outlawed terrorist organization.
It is the first time the government has used the forfeiture provision of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which allows the Attorney General to seize "property owned or controlled by or on behalf of a terrorist group."
The list of items the government wants to strip from the World Tamil Movement of Ontario and World Tamil Movement of Quebec fills 300 pages and includes everything from bank accounts to golf shirts bearing the Tamil Tigers emblem.
If it is successful, the government would be allowed to keep the items or sell them and use the proceeds either to compensate victims of terrorist activities or fund anti-terrorism initiatives.
But the court must first approve the forfeitures and a lawyer representing the Montreal branch of the World Tamil Movement said his clients deny any terrorist affiliation and intend to challenge the government's case.
"Needless to say the WTM maintains that ‘we have never been terrorist financiers and we believe even that the whole system is of doubtful constitutionality,'" Steven Slimovitch said. "So there's no question that this is going to be a long process."
The WTM was formed in 1986 to represent Canada's large population of ethnic Tamils from Sri Lanka, many of whom had fled the civil war between government forces and the separatist Tamil Tigers guerrillas.
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(Excerpt) Read more at nationalpost.com ...
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Ping
Doesn’t this group participate in a yearly Tamil pride parade in downtown Toronto?
This will not make Paul Martin happy. He had an affinity for the Tamils if I recall correctly.
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